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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23577202">Dreams of the Son</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blood_of_Tyrants/pseuds/Blood_of_Tyrants'>Blood_of_Tyrants</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Religious Fiction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:34:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>22,560</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23577202</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blood_of_Tyrants/pseuds/Blood_of_Tyrants</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rob MacArthur's dream was a very special one. And because he recorded it on his neuralizer and shared it, there are powerful people who want him to pay.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dreams of the Son</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Deborah+Stovall">Deborah Stovall</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>		@page { margin: 0.79in }<br/>
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a:link { so-language: zxx }</p><p>Dreams of the Son</p><p>by David Stovall</p><p>“How
did they find us?” Rob wondered to himself. Had returned the old
burner phones, stayed off the Internet, and had not contacted any
family or friends from his previous life, and paid for everything
with multi-vendor gift cards, a prepaid debit card or cash donated to
him by the network in small bills. But they managed to find him
anyway. His only contact with the network was through a burner cell
phone. If it ever rang, he knew someone from the network was trying
to reach him. The message had been simple, the caller had said
simply, “Acadia”, the code word that meant the call was from the
network, followed by, “Code red. Jasmine. Repeat: Acadia, code red,
jasmine.” Code red meant that he and his family were in danger and
to evacuate immediately. Jasmine was to be the next confirmation code
word to verify the next call and shared the information with Kat and
the girls.</p><p>The sun
was peeking over the eastern horizon when the girls were dressed and
had their things packed. “Dear Father,” he silently prayed,
“Protect us from those who would harm us.” Jesus had never said
that being a Christian would mean living the high life on Easy
Street. In fact, he had said the opposite. Matthew 24:9 says. “Then
they will hand you over for <span>persecution</span>,
and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of
My name.” That was not one of Rob’s favorite verses and
definitely not his wife’s or girls’. He made a last sweep of the
two bedroom extended stay motel to make sure nothing was left behind
and herded everyone out to the 10-year-old minivan, also provided by
the network, loaded up everything, checked to make sure everyone was
buckled in and left, turning right out of the hotel parking lot along
the pre-planned route. 
</p><p>After
the first right he started watching for the contact person. He saw a
homeless man at an intersection with a backpack and a sign that said,
“Anything helps, God bless." There were a lot of homeless
people since the states had split. Rob stopped near him and Kat gave
him $5 with the name “Jasmine” written on it. The homeless man
looked at the bill and gave her his backpack. Kat gave him a similar
backpack with their old cell phones, gift cards, and vehicle
registration inside knowing the network would dispose of them. The
man said, “God bless you on your journey”, and they drove away. 
</p><p>Inside
the backpack was a manila envelope containing a temporary New York
license plate, $500 cash, gift cards, and a new burner cell phone.
Also, included was an old-fashioned paper map with a route marked and
scrap of paper with an ad for a motel about 400 miles southwest in
Louisville, Kentucky. The road was still empty this early, so he
pulled around to the back of small gas station and quickly changed
the license plates and threw the old one into a nearby dumpster.
“Looks like we’re headed to the Free States finally,” Kat
announced, taking up her usual role as navigator.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>
When California seceded, Washington, Oregon, and New York quickly
followed declaring that their new union to be called the Peoples’
Republic of America. The New England states, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Illinois, and Pennsylvania followed suit to join the PRA,
as did Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico, and
Colorado. Parts of California split, denounced the secession; forming
a new state called Jefferson and applied for statehood in the old
USA. Eastern Washington and most of Oregon also left the PRA. The
rural parts of Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania
divorced themselves from the left wing lunacy of Minneapolis,
Chicago, Miswaulee, and Philadelphia. 
</p><p>
The remaining US states called for a Convention of States and made
several very important changes to the Constitution. Among them was a
repeal of the 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> Amendments,
dissolving the income tax and returning selection of senators to the
state legislatures. Term limits for representatives and senators were
enacted and states gave themselves the ability to overrule a Supreme
Court decision and federal laws. Included in the new amendments was
the elimination of government regulations imposed by federal
agencies, specifically prohibiting Congress from creating agencies,
bureaus, departments, etc, with the power to create rules with the
weight of law. Also, there was a clarification of the “health and
welfare clause” that prohibited giving public assistance to
able-bodied and able minded people except on a short term basis.
Along with these changes was a narrowing of the “interstate
commerce clause”, which had long been used as an excuse for
thousands of federal regulations and laws. Current regulations were
required to sunset five years unless Congress specifically renewed
them.</p><p>
The 2<sup>nd</sup> Amendment was changed to read, “Every free
person, being a necessary member of the militia, shall not be
prohibited from the right to keep and bear arms suitable for use in
the militia”. 
</p><p>
A form of Social Security was kept but was ended for persons under 50
with whatever they had contributed going to an IRA. Everyone older
than 50 was given the options of a payout to an IRA or keeping their
existing benefits. 
</p><p>
Once the movement to deport illegal aliens from the United States
began, the PRA immediately increased their ongoing cries of racism.
The United States, or the Free States, as they preferred to be
called, offered to send them to the PRA, who refused the offer. 
</p><p>
But most important was the Life Amendment which stated that unborn
children were legal persons and had full protection under the
Constitution. The sole exception for abortion was if the mother’s
life was at immediate risk because of the pregnancy.</p><p>
Recognizing the problem of a declining birthrate in the West, the
Free States offered incentives such as government subsidies for
housing and education and food for families with four or more
children.</p><p>
On the other hand, the PRA went the opposite direction, forming was
essentially a totalitarian socialist state. The first thing to go was
the right to keep and bear arms. The few law-abiding gun owners in
the PRA either turned their guns in, moved away, or hid them. Once
the population was disarmed, all the other freedoms fell, too. 
</p><p>
Anything determined to be “hate speech” was punishable by heavy
fines and mandatory “re-education.” The government actively
censored websites that were reported to be intolerant. Calling a
person by something other than their “preferred pronoun” was
considered a hate crime. Any church or private school that spoke out
against homosexuality or taught any other politically incorrect topic
was closed down. Virtually all Christian churches and schools were
shut down. But for some reason the Muslim imams who preached against
homosexuality were ignored.  
</p><p>
The 4<sup>th</sup> Amendment protections against unlawful search and
seizure was eliminated and the state could inspect your home or
business at any time for any reason. Illegal aliens were given
instant citizenship and the right to vote. Many of the new uneducated
and unskilled PRA citizens immediately applied for public assistance.
</p><p>
Free college education and free health care was guaranteed in the PRA
as well as free money for anyone unable or unwilling to work. This
caused resentment among the ones who did work and as a result
production and quality plummeted. Recreational drugs were legalized n
the PRA, which turned out to be a blessing to the Free States,
drawing in drug addicts from all over the continent to the PRA and
out of the Free States. Sadly, the right to abortion paid by the
government up until birth was included in the guaranteed health care
portion of their constitution. This quickly degenerated into
infanticide of “undesirable” children born with birth defects and
euthanizing the elderly with dementia or other incurable diseases.</p><p>
Taxes went up to pay for all the “free stuff” causing businesses
and the wealthy to flee. To make up for the revenue loss, taxes were
raised even more which in turn caused more businesses and people to
leave. Within three years inflation was in the triple digits. Laws
were enacted to prevent people emigrating from the PRA from removing
assets with them, but there were ways around that. Houses and bank
accounts of emigrants became property of the state, as did anything
of substantial value. Still, people were eager to abandon the PRA and
their mortgages. Mortgage holders folded under the weight of
defaulted loans; the now empty homes made into public housing for the
instant citizens. Decent neighborhoods became third world almost
overnight. The same people who had publicly opposed the wall at the
Mexican border proceeded to build walls along the PRA’s borders,
only this time the barbed wire and guns were facing inward.</p><p>The PRA
became a cesspool of high unemployment and crime, higher taxes as the
standard of living plummeted. Those left were idealists who believed
that socialism could work if only the “right people” were in
charge, the sick and dying, the elderly too set in their ways to
move, the poor, and the stubborn. Rob had been one of the latter,
refusing to admit he was witnessing the disintegration of a culture
and a country. 
</p><p><br/>
</p><p>
Robert MacArthur, ‘Mr. Mac’ to the students, was the type of
teacher everyone liked. He made science interesting by instituting
science into common daily tasks such as determining the amount of
force required to launch a tennis ball 20 feet and fall onto a target
and designing a device out of a sheet of paper and a few pieces of
tape to protect an egg from breakage when dropped from 20 feet. His
students especially enjoyed making “elephant toothpaste” by
mixing potassium iodide and hydrogen peroxide. Interesting but not as
enjoyable was the “wind chill” experiments where the kids bundled
up and went outside on a cold day to learn firsthand how the
meteorologists determined what the wind chill factors meant by
measuring how fast a beaker of hot water cooled on a windy day vs a
calm one.</p><p>It was
this kind of hands-on his kids, 7<sup>th</sup> graders, liked. He
liked teaching them, too, as they were still at an age of innocence
and most had not developed the stereotypical teenage attitude.
Science wasn’t the only reason the kids liked him. He refused to
give mushy answers when the kids would ask difficult questions about
life, government, religion, and sex. Being a private Christian school
teacher in Massachusetts meant that he could state facts that could
be verified. His opinions and beliefs had to be clearly stated as
such. His Christian faith wasn’t generally a “problem” until
Massachusetts left the US and joined the PRA. He and his wife,
Kathryn, Kat for short, who was an LPN, barely managed to get by. 
</p><p>
It began with a theory by Nicola Tesla over 100 years ago. He
theorized that since thoughts were electrical energy, their ought to
be a way to record them. A graduate engineering student’s interest
was piqued when friend said that the brain waves from a sleeping
person had a certain pattern and that when electrodes were placed on
different areas of the head, they would produce different patterns of
theta waves. The student was intrigued and wondered if they could be
processed and recorded by a computer then viewed by another person.
The successes of other people who developed signal processing
equations that allowed 360 degree views from fish-eye camera lenses
and an equation that corrected a singer’s voice and put them into
perfect tune encouraged him. 
</p><p>His
first attempts were failures but eventually images began to come
through. Just shadowy patterns at first, but by tweaking the
equation, more clarity started to emerge. Not only images, but words
and sounds were recorded and put with the images onto computers. At
first, Andy only recorded his own dreams and played them for his
friends, but they begged him to record their dreams, too. Most were
disjointed, quick flashes of sub consciousness but a few were vivid.
Some were embarrassing, some funny, and a few were sexy. 
</p><p>This
was all interesting if you were a high school or college kid or a
psychologist but the real breakthrough was when a device dubbed the
neuralizer, after the memory-erasing device in a popular movie, also
allowed the recorded dreams to be projected directly into the mind of
a relaxed person. This was a real game changer because not only sight
and sound were projected, but smell, taste, touch and emotions as
well. A person could experience the fear of a person with agoraphobia
having a bad dream about falling or the embarrassment of dreaming of
being partially dressed in public or the love of a mother for her
children. 
</p><p>Word of
this discovery soon leaked on the Internet and legitimate and
illegitimate buyers on the Dark Web offered a substantial amount of
money for the technology in the hopes of using the neuralizer for
less than honorable purposes. Governments hoped to use it for
interrogation of enemies of the state and terrorists for brainwashing
potential recruits into their extreme ideologies. Pornographers
wanted it for obvious reasons. 
</p><p>Companies
quickly seized on the opportunity and began marketing the neuralizer
as a smart phone device and app. Soon the Internet was filled with
dreams and companies selling neuralizers for a nominal price.
Websites popped up seemingly overnight where dreams could be uploaded
and downloaded. But for some reason all attempts to manufacture or
modify dreams failed. An attempted fake could be spotted quickly
because the emotional component couldn’t be programmed. For
example, if a person viewing the dream wasn’t afraid of spiders and
the computer generated recording was about spiders, it was merely a
video of a spider, while a genuine recording would cause the viewer
to feel the fear an arachnophobe would. 
</p><p>A new
industry had sprung up almost overnight.</p><p>Always
interested in technology, Rob bought a neuralizer for no particular
reason he could fathom. His first dreams were pretty mundane about
former jobs and people he knew. But one night he had a dream that
would change everything. He knew the dream was special even while he
was dreaming it. It was a dream about the biggest question that
people had been asking since Cain killed Abel; What lies beyond this
life? 
</p><p>	In the
dream, Rob found himself in a special place. The only feelings he had
were of love and peace. The kind of love that encompasses all and
leaves no room for pain or worry or sorrow. He was peripherally aware
of other people around him, but he could not see who they were. Nor
could he care as the peace and love washed over him like a gentle,
warm ocean.</p><p>	During
the dream a man with a shining face appeared and Rob immediately knew
who he was and fell to his knees with his head bowed, “My Lord!”
he barely managed to choke out. 
</p><p>“You
know who I am. Look at me, Robert,” replied the man. He was the Son
of God, the King, the Lamb. Surprisingly, Rob felt no fear, just
curiosity. The glow of Son’s face subsided and what struck Rob the
most was at how ordinary he looked. He looked nothing like the tall
western Christian Jesus with flowing brown hair and light skin.
Instead, he was of medium height, stout build with short dark hair
and beard, and the olive skin typical of Eastern Mediterranean
people. The most remarkable thing about him was he was unremarkable. 
</p><p>“Come,
walk with me.” Rob didn’t want to leave the place and looked
back.  “Don’t worry,” said the Son, “You will come back some
day because you believe in me. It is but a short stop on your
journey.”</p><p>As they
walked, Rob began to notice his surroundings. They were entering a
garden, but unlike any garden he had ever seen. It was peaceful, yes,
but it was much more. The colors were more vivid and sharp than he
could have imagined, extending far into the infrared and ultraviolet
ranges, enabling him to see things that were formerly invisible.
Children ran and played and laughed among animals and plants that
were supposed to have been extinct for centuries or millennia.  The
children were of every race imaginable and were all incredibly
beautiful with no disabilities or illnesses.  Everything had an aura
of living color that rippled like water dancing in a brook on a sunny
day. As they passed, some children paused in their activities and
waved.  The closer ones ran to hug the Son. He smiled and hugged each
one in turn. All the animals bowed in acknowledgment of the Son of
God. The Son noticed every bow and returned a smile and
acknowledgment. At the acknowledgment, the animal’s aura would
ripple with joy. He slowed for a second and saw an ant scurrying
across their path and found when he concentrated on it, he could hear
the tiny sounds of its legs moving and actually smell the
formaldehyde scent of the ant among all the other scents of the
garden. He watched and was amazed as he saw the ant perform a tiny,
graceful bow as the Son passed. 
</p><p>“Why
are there no adults?” asked Rob. 
</p><p>“Why
would anyone choose to be an adult when they are a child of the
Living God? Your eyes have been opened so you can see how it was
meant to be in the beginning,” replied the Son with a smile. Almost
as if his mind was being read, the Son said, “Here your mistakes
and sins are forgiven and forgotten.  It is the only way.  In hell,
you relive each and every sin and mistake and regret in your life
forever and ever.  But come, your time is short and you must see
more.” As they walked, the Son explained, “The first place you
were is similar to the womb. In it you are healed from the emotional
pains and sorrows of life by the Father’s love. And like a womb,
you must leave it after a time and grow.” 
</p><p>They
walked on for a while, the Son pausing often to hug a child. It could
have been minutes or hours as time had no meaning here. The garden
path gave way to a clearing where an uncountable multitude of
children were gathered. Everyone was watching the throne in the
center in eager anticipation. Each person shining with a different
color light, from the palest pink to the deepest vermilion, light
blue to deep indigo, thousands of colors that weaved among each other
as the children waited. Each one added to the feeling of love that he
felt.</p><p>“Watch,”
instructed the Son. Suddenly the throne began to shine like the sun,
but for some reason it did not blind him. Even though they were on
the edge of the crowd, he could see the throne as though he was in
the front. He watched amazed as the living colors of the children
danced higher. Something was happening that Rob could not make out
and suddenly the children fell on their faces and began to cry,
“Holy, holy, holy is our God who is worthy to be praised!” 
</p><p>Rob
looked to the Son with an unspoken question. “That was the Father,”
explained the Son, “He was revealing something about His glory that
no one had ever seen before. His children gather each day to witness
The Revealing. You were not able to see it because it is not yet your
time to be here. There is much more than what you have been shown.”</p><p>“But
now your time here is over for a while. This is but a glimpse of what
awaits those who believe in me. The harvest is abundant, but the
workers are few. Go and spread this message throughout the world.”</p><p>And
just like that Rob awoke, remembering everything, but especially the
feeling of love in the place of healing and wondered what the Son had
meant by more than he had been shown. It was early, but he was wide
awake. Panicked, he felt his head and was relieved as he felt the
soft silicone of the neuralizer sensors and tapped the screen of his
smart phone and saw that it had recorded his dream and verified it
was being uploaded to the cloud. The timer said that the dream lasted
4 minutes 36 seconds. “Four and a half minutes?” he thought, it
had seemed like hours. He silently said a quick prayer of thanks and
waited for the alarm. 
</p><p>When
the alarm sounded, he slapped it off, rolled over, and kissed Kat on
the cheek. “Good morning, beautiful.” 
</p><p>Kat
mumbled a sleepy, “Good morning”. Their morning routine consisted
of Kat wakening the girls while Rob shaved, showered, and dressed.
During his shower, he thought about what to do now. He clearly
remembered his instructions to spread the message about the dream but
something made him uneasy. He dressed quickly, grabbed a bagel and a
cup of coffee and lingered in the kitchen where Kat prepared the
girls’ breakfast and lunch. 
</p><p>“I’ve
got something to show you this afternoon,” he said to Kat. 
</p><p>“What
did you do now?” asked Kat cynically but playfully.</p><p>“Nothing,”
he replied semi-defensively, “I had a dream and I want to show it
to you.”</p><p>“Not
another one where you are feeding ducks or drag racing,” she said
sarcastically. Kat had not approved of Rob’s neuralizer purchase
and would view Rob’s recordings but refused to view uploaded dreams
of others. But since she loved him, she indulged him in his
fascination. 
</p><p>“No,
this one is special. You’ll see,” he promised through a mouthful
of bagel.</p><p>“I
can hardly wait,” she said sarcastically. 
</p><p>“Girls!
Come on, it’s almost time to leave with Daddy!” she yelled out.</p><p>Abby
was the studious one who took school seriously was the opposite of
Emma, 8, who had to be coaxed, reminded, and sometimes scolded to get
her homework done. Never less both girls were straight A students.
Kat was thankful that Rob’s teaching position at the Christian
school allowed free tuition for their daughters and keep them out of
the public schools’ indoctrination centers. 
</p><p>“Mom,
when can I finally get a cell phone?”, asked Abby in a slightly
whiny voice. “All of my friends have one.”</p><p>“You
know we can’t afford another cell phone,” said Kat, somewhat
annoyed. “You can get one when you can work and earn the money to
pay for it yourself.”</p><p>“I’ve
saved money from babysitting and can make the monthly payments
myself,” replied Abby hopefully.</p><p>She and
Rob had discussed this long ago and had decided that they would allow
Abby to get a cell phone for her 15<sup>th</sup> birthday in a few
months. Until then, all the girls’ Internet access was filtered by
a parental control app. There were far too many bad things on the
Internet and pornography wasn’t the worst of them.</p><p>“Not
yet,” said Kat firmly. “Now go get in the car. It’s time to go
to school.” She handed them their lunches and kissed them all as
they went out the back door. 
</p><p>
Rob could barely concentrate on the lessons of the day for thinking
about his dream, frequently checking to make sure it was still there
and remembering how loved he felt. He knew he must share it, but
hesitated still. Kat usually had good instincts about things like
this, so he trusted her judgment. During a free period, he pulled out
his neuralizer and viewed the dream to make sure it was as he
remembered. As he watched it he again experienced the love, the
heightened senses, and the wonder of being in the presence of the
King. He pondered The Revealing and thought about it. If God revealed
something about himself each day, it would literally take forever to
see even a portion of his greatness.</p><p>When
the day finally ended, the girls waited in his classroom while he
finished grading papers and entering the grades into the computer. 
He logged out, gathered his belongings and felt his pocket for his
smart phone. He made sure the girls had all they would need for
homework that evening and headed home. 
</p><p>When he
got home, he sat in his favorite chair and scanned social media for
anything interesting. It was the usual, more Christian schools shut
down in New England and California for “teaching hate”, more bad
news on the PRA economy, crime in the PRA was up again, but the
politicians assured the people that prosperity was just around the
corner with the next round of laws and new taxes. Disgusted, he
closed his laptop and went to the kitchen.</p><p>“What’s
for dinner?” he asked while peeking under the pan lids.</p><p>“Spaghetti
and meatballs,” answered Kat.</p><p>“Smells
delicious,” returned Rob. “Will you view my dream after supper?”</p><p>“Yes,
if you’ll clean up dinner dishes,” she replied.</p><p>“Deal!”
he said emphatically.</p><p>After
the dishes had been washed and leftovers put away for lunches the
next day, Kat settled down and said, “Well, let’s see it,” she
said. “But before I view it, what am I going to see? It’s not
scary or gross, is it?”</p><p>“No,
it’s nothing I wouldn’t let Abby or Emma see. It’s pretty cool,
actually. I think it is, anyway,” he replied hesitantly. 
</p><p>She put
the neuralizer on as Rob ran the calibration routine. When it
finished he told her so, and she touched the Play button on Rob’s
smart phone. Rob watched nervously as Kat closed her eyes and started
smiling, then stopped smiling and made an “o” with her mouth. He
saw a tear trickle down her cheek as it ended. Kat opened her eyes
and looked questioningly at Rob. Then she blurted out, “Was that
heaven? Was that Jesus? The colors! The sounds! Everything was so
vivid that everything looks dull, now! I’ve never felt love so
strongly! Not that I don’t believe you love me, but God’s love is
infinitely better!  He even knew my name!”</p><p>“What,”
asked Rob confusedly. “He said your name?  I’m sure he said my
name.”</p><p>“No,
I’m sure he called me by my name,” said Kat.</p><p>“Really?
Well, that’s different,” said Rob.  All the dreams he had ever
viewed were specific to the dreamer.  You always experienced exactly
what they did, he explained to Kat.</p><p>“What
should we do with it?”</p><p>“We
have to make copies. We have to upload it to the Internet to share
just like He said to!”, she answered quickly. “You do have an
account on one of the neuralizer websites, don’t you?”</p><p>Rob did
have one, but his dreams had only been downloaded a few dozen times
as they were pretty ordinary as dreams went.</p><p>“Good
idea. It is backed up on the cloud, but I haven’t made copies,
yet”, he confessed. Rob synced his smart phone with his laptop
computer and downloaded the dream to it. He emailed Kat a copy and
made a copy for the thumb drive he kept on his key chain, and just
for good measure, another copy to a micro memory card that he hid in
a box of Chiclets and stuffed it into his pocket.</p><p>“Have
Abby and Emily seen it yet?” asked Kat.</p><p>“Not
yet, do you think they should?” he asked.</p><p>“Of
course! They ought to see it right now,” she answered quickly.
“Abby! Emma! Come here, there is something we want you to see.”</p><p>The
girls came downstairs and asked, “What is it?”</p><p>Kat
asked them, “You’ve heard of the neuralizer, haven’t you?” As
they nodded Kat continued, “Daddy had a special dream last night,
and we want you to view it.”</p><p>“What
was it about? It’s not something weird, is it?” asked Abby
cautiously. 
</p><p>“No,
sweetie,” assured Kat, “It’s something special that we want you
to see.”</p><p>First
Rob put the neuralizer on Abby and ran the calibration routine and
said to Abby, “It’s best if you are relaxed with the lights down
and the room quiet, baby girl.” Rob started the program and waited
while Abby silently viewed it. Her reactions were much like her
mother’s. When she finished she said, “Wow! That was cool!
What...” she began.</p><p>“What
was it?”, whined Emma. “I want to see it,” she begged.</p><p>“We’ll
answer your questions after Emma has viewed it,” explained Rob.
“Emma, your turn.”</p><p>Rob put
the neuralizer on Emma and calibrated it again for her then played
it. Emma smiled for a bit and then reached out as if trying to touch
something only she could see. When she finished, she opened her eyes
and said, “That’s the way I felt when I was in your tummy, Mommy.
Who was that nice man? I like him.”</p><p>Kat
smiled and said, “That was Jesus, sweetie.”</p><p>“Was
that heaven?” she asked innocently.</p><p>“A
little part of it,” answered Rob.</p><p>“I
thought so,” said Abby.</p><p>“Will
I go there?” Emma asked.</p><p>“If
you believe in Jesus,” said Kat.</p><p>“Is
that all?” she asked.</p><p>“Not
quite,” said Rob. “You have to believe that Jesus was the son of
God who died for our sins and rose again.”<br/>
“I believe
that,” said Emma solemnly. “If it’s so easy, why doesn’t
everyone do it?”</p><p>“I
don’t know, honey. Some people think that believing in Jesus means
they have to stop doing the things they like doing, even though they
are wrong,” said Rob, “But when you belong to Jesus, you will
want to change and live more like God wants us to.”</p><p>“I
want to be good so God will love me,” said Emma.</p><p>“Sweetie,
God loves everyone, even if they are being bad”, joined Kat, “But
God can’t be in the presence of bad people, and no one is good
enough to be with him, so he sent Jesus to pay for our badness. Once
you accept that Jesus can take your sins away, you can go to heaven
with God.”</p><p>“The
bible says in Romans 10:9, ‘If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus
is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.’ All you have to do now is say it,” said
Rob.</p><p>“How
do I do that?” asked Emma.</p><p>“Well,
you pray like this,” said Abby. “Here, let’s all hold hands.”</p><p>As they
held hands Rob began, “Dear Father, Emma has something to say to
you.”</p><p>“God,”
began Emma hesitantly, “I want to go to heaven when I die. I
believe Jesus died for me and that you raised him from the dead. I
want to be good like Jesus was in the dream. Is that all I need to
say?”</p><p>“Yes,
sweetie”, said Kat, “That’s all.” And she finished with,
“Amen.”</p><p>The
four of them hugged tearfully but joyfully.</p><p>“Do I
get to get baptized now, Mommy?” asked Emma.</p><p>“We’ll
talk to the pastor about that Sunday morning,” reassured Kat. “Now,
it’s bath time. It’s Emma’s turn to go first. Now, up you go.”</p><p>After
they had gone upstairs Kat turned to Rob while wiping away her tears,
“Rob, I’ve prayed for her her whole life and this is the happiest
I’ve ever been for her.”</p><p>“Me,
too,” Rob choked out. “I’ll email Pastor John and see if she
can be baptized Sunday morning.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>After
composing and sending the email, Rob said a prayer thanking God for
their salvation and the dream and uploaded it to his neuralizer
sharing account and named it ‘Dreams of the Son’. He wondered
what effect it would have on other people and thought, “It’s in
God’s hands, now. I’ve done my part.” And with that he closed
his laptop, turned on the television and forgot about the dream for
the night.</p><p>
The next morning while walking to first period class, someone
excitedly called out, “Mac!  Wait up!” Rob paused as Sean Carter,
a fellow teacher, breathlessly ran to catch up. “Have you looked at
your neuralizer account this morning? It’s exploded and gone viral!
Look!” he said, thrusting a notepad computer into Rob’s hands. 
</p><p>“What?”
asked Rob skeptically. As he looked, he saw that it had already had
over 50,000 views and had been linked to over 5,000 times. 
</p><p>“And
that’s not all,” said Sean, “Look at the comments; there's
thousands.”</p><p>Rob
scrolled down and saw encouraging comments such as, “This brought
tears to my eyes. TY for sharing and affirming my faith”, “He
knows my name!”, and “Is this heaven? How can I know that I will
go there?” and many similar comments. 
</p><p>But
conversely there were also comments such as, “Lies! I hope you burn
in hell you ****** ******”, and “FOAD”, and more disturbing,
“We’re coming after you for this!”. 
</p><p>Rob
felt a lump in his stomach and put his hand out against the wall to
steady himself. “God, what have I done?” he thought. For the
first time in his adult life he felt fear gripping him as he
questioned, “Is this real? Are Kat and the girls safe?” 
</p><p>Almost
immediately the answer came to him, “You have done just as you have
been instructed to do, my son. Do not fear for I am with you.” With
that Rob felt himself calmed somewhat. 
</p><p>“What
are you going to do?” asked Sean.</p><p>“I’m
not sure, but I will trust God and go teach first period.” replied
Rob. 
</p><p>Throughout
the morning, Rob taught classes but the students could tell he was
distracted. Finally, one boy raised his hand and asked, “Mr. Mac?
Is heaven really like your dream?”</p><p>Rob
looked at the boy for a second as he and the rest of the class looked
at Rob expectantly and said, “Yes, Jacob, I believe it is,” and
after a few seconds hesitation he asked. “How many here have viewed
it?” Almost all the hands went up. 
</p><p>“We
viewed it at quiet time,” volunteered a girl. The school very
carefully filtered what Internet content was allowed at school so
constant monitoring of what the children could access was not a
problem. However, most social media sites and apps were blocked as
well as most neuralizer sites.</p><p>“Why
doesn’t Jesus look like the paintings in church?” asked one. “Why
couldn’t we see God?” asked another. “Where is heaven?”,
asked a third. And most importantly, “How do I go there?”</p><p>And for
the rest of the period Rob answered all the questions about the dream
that he could. Sometimes the answer was simply, “I don’t know.”
The next classes followed the same pattern of distracted attempts at
teaching followed by a question and answer session about the dream.</p><p>Rob
forgot his earlier fears and felt invigorated like he hadn’t been
in a long time and took a minute to thank God for the blessing of the
dream.</p><p>When
Rob and the girls arrived at home, Kat met them at the kitchen door
and worriedly asked, “Have you checked your neuralizer account this
afternoon?”</p><p>When
Rob admitted he hadn’t, Kat updated him, “One of my friends
linked to it on social media and it has over two hundred thousand
views and tens of thousands of shares and links. But, Honey, some of
the comments are nasty and threatening. I’m afraid for the girls.
There are some disturbed people out there.”</p><p> “God
will protect us,” he said. Rob hesitated to bring it up because he
knew Kat’s feelings on the matter but plowed ahead. “And I still
have Papa’s pistol,” he added. Rob wondered if still worked as he
hadn’t taken it out to shoot in years, only oiling and operating
the moving parts. Rob had decided that the old Smith and Wesson
revolver was about as reliable as you could get and took very little
training to operate. Kat had wanted to turn it in when the PRA had
outlawed them but Rob had assured her that his grandfather had bought
it before the 1968 Gun Control Act and had refused to register it
when the mandatory registration law had been passed. He was sure that
no records of the pistol existed.</p><p>Papa
used to tell Rob, “I would rather be judged by 12 than carried by
6.” Well, Rob, thought, that was when Massachusetts followed the
old US Constitution. The PRA constitution had no such guarantee of
due process or the right to keep and bear arms. Citizens caught with
a firearm were prosecuted and jailed even when it was used in self
defense. The result was that the only people with guns were law
enforcement and criminals. The bad parts of cities were now effective
“no go zones”, even for the police. Politicians focused instead
on disarming the law-abiding. They were much less dangerous to disarm
than criminals. Turning it in was impossible as the grace period had
expired 90 days after the law had passed. So Rob had kept his gun and
kept quiet . He suspected many others had done the same.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>
Joanna Winslow hated the person who had posted that dream. Her life
seemed to be going great until her wife, Alicia, had viewed the dream
and told her she could no longer pretend that everything was okay. 
</p><p>She had
pleaded with Alicia to stay telling her how much she loved her.
Alicia told her that she loved her, too, but could no longer be with
her as her wife. Joanna knew that Alicia had grown up going to church
but thought she had left all the racist and misogynistic shackles of
an ancient culture behind for the freedom of a non-judgmental life.
Alicia had packed her bags and left the very same day.</p><p>Joanna
wasn’t the type to take this sitting down and needed a target for
anguish. As soon as she arrived at her job in the Department of
Diversity and Inclusivity, she ordered her underlings to track the
source of that dream and to shut it down. She hated Christians and
didn’t bother to hide it. There was no need to since most of the
others at the DDI felt the same. They quickly came up with a name for
her. Robert MacArthur. A teacher at a Christian school. Well, this
was all she needed to shut the school down. She quickly drafted a
complaint that a sympathetic judge would sign and sent it to the
legal department. No Christian bastard was going to ruin her life and
get away with it, she thought.</p><p>
Rob arrived at school next morning and saw a group of people standing
outside the main entrance. 
</p><p>“What’s
going on?” he asked no one in particular. 
</p><p>“The
school has been closed by the order of the state,” said someone.</p><p>“What?
Why?” asked Rob with disbelief. 
</p><p>“It
says we were teaching hate speech.” added another. “Look for
yourself.”</p><p>Rob
pushed in closer and could see the chains through the door handles
and the big padlock on the door. On the glass pane was a piece of
paper that read:</p><p>NOTICE</p><p>The
Commonwealth of Massachusetts has hereby ordered the closure of this
school under 
</p><p>Title
VII, Section 103 that prohibits the teaching of materials detrimental
to the common good of the people of the State and the People’s
Republic of America. This order is effective immediately and is not
subject to appeal.  All parents should contact their local school
board to register their children for at the public school to which
they are zoned.</p><p>________________________________________________________</p><p>And
just like that Rob and the other teachers found themselves out of a
job. The teachers and parents milled around and talked angrily among
themselves. 
</p><p>“Can
they do this?” asked one parent.</p><p>“Apparently
they can,” came the angry reply. 
</p><p>“What
do we do now?” asked another.</p><p>“Yes,
what do we do now?” thought Rob. He and Kat had some savings and
could manage a few weeks on her paycheck, and she could probably pick
up some more hours at the hospital until he could get another
teaching job. Until then, he could home school the girls as he and
Kat were absolutely opposed to putting them in public school. Rob
gathered the girls and drove glumly home. Already thinking of where
he could apply for a job, Rob mentally updated his resume on the
short drive. 
</p><p>Kat
looked up in surprise when the three of them walked through the door.
“What...” she began.</p><p>“They
closed the school,” said Emma.</p><p>“What?
Why?” inquired Kat worriedly.</p><p>Rob
recounted what the notice said to Kat who asked the same questions he
had heard earlier and then answered as he had heard discussed at the
school. “What did they allege was taught at school?”</p><p>“The
notice didn’t say, but it was only a matter of time before our
school was shut down like the others,” he said bitterly. “I mean,
the PRA has shuttered the doors of a lot of other Christian schools
in other cities. Why should we think ours would be different?”</p><p>“We’ll
get along for a while. We’ll be okay. I’ll get another teaching
position,” he reassured Kat, “God will open another door.”</p><p>He
spent the afternoon polishing his resume and scanned online for
teaching positions within commuting distance from his house and
applied for several. 
</p><p>The
next morning he signed in to his neuralizer account to look see how
his dream was doing only to find the message, “This dream has been
blocked by the authority of the Attorney General of the People’s
Republic of America as being unsuitable for public consumption”. 
</p><p>“What?”
he mumbled.</p><p>“What
did you say?” asked Kat.</p><p>“My
dream has been blocked,” he answered.</p><p>“Why
would they do that?” demanded Kat.</p><p>“It
says it’s ‘unsuitable for public consumption’,” returned Rob.</p><p>“That’s
impossible,” said Kat in disbelief. “Can they do that?”</p><p>“Freedom
of speech is no longer guaranteed by the PRA constitution. So, yes, I
guess they can,” said Rob disgustedly. “Porn sites are allowed
but a dream about heaven isn’t? That’s messed up,” he thought.
But there was literally nothing he could do about it. Thankfully, the
neuralizer server was physically located in what was left of the
United States, or the Free States, as they called themselves.</p><p>“I’ll
make a few calls about some job leads I got in my email overnight,”
said Rob as he kissed Kat as she left for the hospital, “I love
you. Be careful.” 
</p><p>“I
will. I love you, too,” called Kat over her shoulder.</p><p>Rob
started making calls, but as soon as he told them his name, they
would hurriedly tell him there was no position open and hang up.
Finally, one recruiter said, “Mr. MacArthur, I’m not supposed to
tell you this, but you’ve been blacklisted by the government. I’m
sorry I can’t tell you more, but I’m risking my job by telling
you this much,” and hung up.</p><p>Rob
stared at his phone stunned for a minute. “Blacklisted? For what?”
wondered Rob aloud to no one. Maybe because he had been a teacher at
a Christian school. To test the hypothesis, Rob called a few teachers
from the school and was told their job searches had similar results.
Rob didn’t bring it up, but no one mentioned they had been told
they were blacklisted. Well, the recruiter had said that he wasn’t
supposed to tell.</p><p>Later
that night Kat shook Rob awake. “Rob! Wake up! Someone has broken
into the car!” she whispered urgently.</p><p>Instantly
Rob was wide awake and heard the car alarm going off for a few
seconds and then it went silent. He went to his closet where he kept
his gun, thought better of it and grabbed a baseball bat and
whispered back, “Call 911! Stay here, I’ll check on the girls.”
If someone was breaking into his car, shooting at the perpetrator
would only land him in jail. The gun was for life and death
emergencies only.</p><p>“You’re
not leaving me here! I’m coming with you!” Kat said.</p><p>Rob
cracked the bedroom door open and peered into the dark hallway.
Hearing nothing he crossed the hallway to the girls’ room and
looked in. Both girls were still sound asleep. “Typical”, he
thought. As he looked downstairs he could see a glow coming from the
kitchen. He hurried downstairs and looked out the window and saw the
car was on fire in the driveway. “FIRE! Kat! The car is on fire!
Cal 911!”</p><p>Rob ran
outside in his pajamas, grabbed the garden hose, and concentrated on
keeping the fire from spreading to the garage and house. 
</p><p>Kat
came out clutching her cell phone. “Please hurry!” she said to
the dispatcher and then to Rob, “The fire department will be here
in a minute, honey.”</p><p>After
what seemed like an eternity, they breathed a sigh of relief when
they heard the wail of the siren. The fire truck pulled up and a
fireman pulled a hose up to the car and had the fire out within a
surprisingly short time. The fire chief, a burly man in his forties,
said, “You’re lucky your car wasn’t closer to the house or you
might have lost it, too. A fire investigator will be over in the
morning to make a report. You can file it with your insurance company
then.”</p><p>The
girls had been awakened by the commotion and were standing in the
kitchen door with Kat. Kat asked what the fire chief said and after
he told her, she said, “It wasn’t accidental. Look at this. It
was taped to the back door,” and handed Rob a piece of paper. He
read, “Dam [sic] you Christians. The world would be better off
without you bigots”. 
</p><p>Rob
felt sick to his stomach and looked at Kat. “It’s some nutcase,”
he said finally.</p><p>“Does
this have anything to do with the dream you uploaded?” asked Kat in
a quivering voice.</p><p>For the
first time, Rob considered the possibility that the dream could be a
dangerous thing and the threats were not just your normal Internet
crazies. 
</p><p>“Why
would anyone be angry about a dream about heaven?” asked Abby.</p><p>Rob
considered her question and thought about her fairly sheltered life
and said finally, “Because people don’t want to be told that what
they are doing is wrong. Their heart is owned by evil and not good.”</p><p>“Now,
let’s all go back inside and pretend to go back to sleep and trust
God to take care of us.”</p><p>With
that Rob and Kat herded them back inside and back to bed. Rob thought
he wouldn’t sleep but was wrong and fell asleep almost as soon as
his head hit the pillow. It was still dark outside when his ringing
cell phone jolted him awake. He answered it with a
trying-not-to-sound-sleepy, “Hello?”</p><p>“Rob?
This is John Wilson, the pastor from church. Listen very carefully.
You and Kathryn and the girls are in danger. I need to come over to
your house right now if you want to escape,” said Pastor John
urgently.</p><p>“What?
Why?” asked Rob, now fully awake again.</p><p>“There’s
no time. I’ll explain it all in a few minutes when I come over,”
answered John. “In the meantime get everyone awake and be ready to
leave in an hour,” he continued and hung up.</p><p>“Who
was that?” asked Kat with worry in her voice.</p><p>“It
was Pastor John,” said Rob, “He says we’re in danger. We need
to wake the girls and be ready to leave in an hour.”</p><p>“What?”
asked Kat in disbelief. “Who are we in danger from?”</p><p>“I
don’t know,” replied Rob, “but I trust Pastor John. Go wake the
girls.”</p><p>Kat
woke the sleeping girls and ordered them in her firm mom voice to get
up and get dressed immediately. The urgent tone of her voice meant it
wasn’t a time for questions and the girls got up and started
getting dressed.</p><p>About
the time Rob finished dressing, he heard a knock at the kitchen door.
He looked out and saw Pastor John and someone he didn’t recognize.</p><p>Opening
the door he said, “Come in, John,” and shook his hand. Kat came
down and listened.</p><p>“I
wish I could say good morning, but there is little good about it.
I’ll get right to the point, Rob. You and your family are about to
be arrested for treason against the state. That dream you uploaded to
the web is causing all sorts of problems in the PRA. They mean to
arrest you and ship you all to re-education centers in upstate New
York.”</p><p>Rob
felt the fear rising up in his throat as Kat clutched his arm. “I’ve
heard of people being arrested and taken to them, but I thought they
were all just stories.”</p><p>“They’re
real, alright. There is a network for smuggling people to safety in
the Free States similar to the Underground Railroad of the 19<sup>th</sup>
century. I’ve been contacted by Eric, here, by the way, that’s
not his real name, that the people in the network who have friends in
high places tell them that the district attorney is seeking a warrant
for your arrest.”</p><p>“All
for a dream about heaven?” asked Kat in disbelief.</p><p>John
explained, “It’s not just about the dream, it’s the questions
people are asking about it. The people who demand tolerance for their
beliefs and sins are the most intolerant. Anyone who was once on
their side and rejects their views is shunned and anyone who converts
them is a target”. He paused for a second and continued, “Rob,
you’ve made a lot of enemies. Your dream has made people question
the path their lives have been taking.”</p><p>“But
they blocked it,” protested Rob.</p><p>“Yes,
but not before it was downloaded and saved to hundreds of thousands
of computers. It’s also still available in free countries and on
the Dark Web to those who know how to access it”, said Eric,
speaking for the first time. “Your bank accounts have been seized
and credit cards have been frozen and your cell phones are being
monitored. Within a few hours the police will be here with a warrant
for your arrest”.</p><p>Rob
pulled out his smart phone to check his bank account, but Eric warned
against it. “Like I said, you’re being monitored.”</p><p>“If
you want to stay free, you must do as I say and you must do it
quickly,” he continued.</p><p>Kat
stood close clutching Rob’s arm, and looked at him with the same
fear he felt, wanting to scream or cry but sensed this was not the
time to fall apart. Years of dealing with life or death emergencies
in the hospital had prepared her for this. She would what she had to
do to protect her family. So, she straightened herself and said in a
voice as cold as steel, “Tell us what to do.”</p><p>“Good.”
said Eric. “First, bring me all your cell phones and all your
credit cards and identification and bring all your computers and pads
to me. Gather enough clothes and personal items for a few days. And
do it quickly. We don’t have much time. You won’t be coming back
here, ever. I know you have a million questions but they will be
answered later. Right now we’ve got to get you to a safe house.”</p><p>He
mentally tried to inventory all the electronic devices in the house
as he gathered them up and put them on the kitchen table. “I think
that’s all”, he said to Eric.</p><p>Eric
picked them all up and took the batteries out of the laptops and put
them into a backpack. The cell phones and tablets he turned off, put
into an electrostatic Mylar bag, which were in turn placed into an
aluminum briefcase along with all the credit cards. “This will act
as a Faraday cage and block all electronic transmissions,” he
explained, “Your laptops will be wiped and reloaded for use by the
network, if that’s alright with you, of course.”</p><p>Kat
turned and saw Abby and Emma in the doorway, their eyes wide with
fear, and asked calmly, “How much did you hear?”</p><p>Emma
stood there near tears. “Enough to know that we have to leave,”
said Abby.</p><p>“That’s
right, sweetie. We have to leave right away. Now, I need you to go
pack enough clothes for a few days and your toothbrush and anything
you just can’t live without,” said Kat, “Now scoot. Don’t
worry about packing neatly, just throw it in a bag and be ready in 30
minutes.”</p><p>As the
girls hurried up the stairs, Rob said, “I’ll get the other
things.” As he was going through his wallet, he realized how many
cards with his name on it he had. Kat’s purse was even worse as she
had more room to carry more cards. “What’ll you do with them?”,
inquired Rob.</p><p>“We’ll
shred and burn most, but some cards have an RFID chip in them that
can be read when you go near a scanner like the ones used for
anti-shoplifting in stores”, explained Eric, “We’ll use those
to plant a false trail for a couple of days to throw them off and
then destroy them, too. Now go pack, quickly.”</p><p>Rob
went to pack with Kat who asked, “What about our photos and the
kids report cards and the clay pot Emma made me for Mother’s Day?”</p><p>“All
our photos have been uploaded to a secure server in case our
computers crashed and we can recover them when we are safe. Just grab
the things most important to you,” replied Rob.</p><p>Rob
grabbed a few clothes from the closet and chest of drawers and thrust
them haphazardly into a suitcase. He considered it for a second and
shoved Papa’s pistol among the clothing. He grabbed his shaving kit
and put it into the bag, too, then zipped the bag closed. Kat had
finished packing already and was helping the girls.</p><p>When
everyone was downstairs with their bags, Pastor John said, “Okay,
everyone have everything they need? Let’s go.”</p><p>“Wait!”,
cried Emma, “I’ve got to get Mr. Snuggles!” And she ran back to
her room. 
</p><p>“Hurry!”
urged Kat. A few seconds later Emma reappeared clutching her stuffed
bear.</p><p>Kat
looked around, wondering about the irreplaceable treasures she was
leaving behind, saw the refrigerator and snatched a child’s
drawing. Clutching it she said with finality, “Ready.”</p><p>“Just
a minute,” said Pastor John as he bowed his head. “Father, we
pray for your guidance and protection from those who would harm this
family. Bless them for their obedience to you. In Jesus’ precious
name, amen”.</p><p>“Amen,”
repeated the others in muted voices.</p><p>The
went outside, passing the burned out hulk of their car into the
coming dawn where a black van with dark tinted windows waited and
loaded up their suitcases and climbed in. 
</p><p>“This
is as far as I go,” said Pastor John. “It’s best that I know as
little as possible. I’ll be praying for you,” he said as he
closed the door on the van.</p><p>“Where
are we going?” Rob asked of Eric.</p><p>“First,
we’ll drive around to make sure aren’t being followed. Then we’ll
switch vehicles a couple of times and then take you to the safe
house,” explained Eric.</p><p>Rob
couldn’t help it and looked nervously over his shoulder from the
middle row to see if anyone was behind them. Seeing nothing, he
turned around and watched the road, wondering what lay ahead. Looking
at Kat he could see the barely contained fear in her eyes. Emma was
holding Mr. Smuggles tightly and staring at the seat back in front of
her while Abby stared out of the window, trying to conceal her
emotions.</p><p>They
drove around until they came to a parking garage about 20 minutes
from their house and parked next to a large silver SUV. “We use
this garage for changing vehicles because we have verified that there
are no security cameras here,” said Eric. “That’s your next
contact in the SUV. She’ll take you to the next transfer.”</p><p>Eric
helped them take their bags out of the van and into the SUV and said,
“Godspeed, brother and sisters.” 
</p><p>The
MacArthur's climbed in the back of the SUV and the driver, a
middle-aged woman said, “Good morning,” in an oddly cheery voice.
“I don’t need to know your names but you can call me Maggie.”</p><p>“Good
morning, Maggie.  Where are we going?”, asked Rob.</p><p>“To
the next transfer point,” she said vaguely.</p><p>As she
pulled out of her parking spot and headed to the exit, four other
vehicles, each large enough to hold a whole family, pulled out ahead
of her and two behind. When they reached the exit, the vehicles all
went in different directions. Rob guessed that the purpose was to
confuse anyone who was watching and Maggie confirmed it.</p><p>Maggie
made several turns and was soon in an area Rob was totally unfamiliar
with. Finally she drove into an industrial section of town where it
wasn’t unusual to have traffic at all hours. As Maggie drove up to
a warehouse, and after the door raised, drove inside and parked near
a panel van that had the name of a national delivery company on it. 
</p><p>“Goodbye
and good luck,” said Maggie.</p><p>They
got out and loaded their bags in the back. “Get in and sit on the
floor and I’ll take you to the safe house”, instructed the
driver. Rob helped Kat and the girls in and climbed in the back
himself. Abby sat close to Rob and Emma snuggled in under Kat’s arm
and said quietly, “Where are we going, Mommy?”</p><p>“To a
safe place, baby girl,” said Kat reassuringly. 
</p><p>“Everything
will be alright,” added Rob, patting her on the knee, “We just
have to trust God to take care of us.”</p><p>Rob
couldn’t see where they were going, which was probably the whole
point of them riding in in the windowless back of the delivery van.
After a number of stops and turns, Rob gave up trying to keep up with
them and rode in silence.  Finally, the driver stopped, turned off
the engine and announced, “We’re here.” Rob heard the familiar
sound of an automated garage door opener operating. When the door was
fully closed, the driver got out of the van, walked around and opened
the back door to the van. “Gather your bags and go inside,” he
told them.</p><p>Rob got
out first and could see that they were in a windowless residential
garage and heard a voice from the front of the delivery van,
“Welcome,” said a voice, “Bring your things inside.” Rob
looked around and saw a man he judged to be in his thirties holding
the door open. Then to the driver he said, “Thank you, driver, you
can go as soon as our guests are in the house.”</p><p>As they
made their way into the house, their host said, “First of all, you
can call me Kevin and don’t try to find out where you are. Don’t
even look out of the windows. The fewer people who know where we are,
the safer everyone is. Now, I’ll show you to your rooms.”</p><p>By
habit Rob started to introduce himself with, “Hi, I’m….” but
was interrupted by Kevin who quickly said, “I don’t need to know
your names. Compartmentalization and all that.”</p><p>After
he had shown them their rooms, he said, “I’ll let you unpack and
get some rest and I promise you that I’ll answer all your questions
in a while after you’ve had some rest,” and he closed the door
and left them all standing in the bedroom.”</p><p>No one
said anything for a minute until Abby looked up at Rob and asked,
“What happens now?”</p><p>“I
don’t know, baby girl,” said Rob slowly, “I don’t know. But
for now just go and unpack your clothes and things and then try to
take a nap.” And he shooed them out of the door.</p><p>Then to
Kat, “We’ll be okay”, he said reassuringly to Kat who hugged
him tightly.</p><p>They
wordlessly unpacked and straightened their wrinkled clothes and lay
down to try to rest. After a few minutes they heard a soft knock on
the bedroom door and the door cracked open and a small voice asked
timidly, “Can we come in?”</p><p>“Of
course. Come in and lie down with Mommy and Daddy,” said Kat
quietly. 
</p><p>The
girls came in quickly and lay down, hugging their parents tightly for
reassurance. The fire and the excitement of the morning caught up
with them all and before they knew it, they were all asleep.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>
When they woke, Kevin was knocking at the door saying, “I’m sorry
to interrupt your nap, but I’ve made lunch and you really must be
briefed.”</p><p>“We’re
awake,” said Rob sleepily. “We’ll be out in a minute”.</p><p>Rob and
Kat woke the girls who groaned as they got up. Rob realized how
hungry he was and went into the bathroom to wash his hands. Looking
into the mirror he realized he hadn’t shaved or even combed his
hair since the morning before. Running his tongue over his teeth
reminded him he hadn’t brushed his teeth, either. “Well, that
will wait for awhile,” he thought. Right now he was hungry.</p><p>Kat
took her turn in the bathroom and came out and herded the girls into
the kitchen where a simple lunch of sandwiches, chips, and soft
drinks awaited them.</p><p>Kevin
waited for them to finish and invited them to join him around the
dining table. “I’m going to brief you on what I know and who we
are and what the plan is,” he began. “I know that you are in
danger because you have professed your Christian faith in some way
and someone with political clout has made a complaint. I don’t know
who you are but you aren’t the first we’ve helped to escape. It’s
best if the children don’t hear the rest.” Kat had the girls
return to their room.</p><p>Rob
didn’t think that anyone had ever had his attention more. He
continued, “First, we’ll forge identification documents and give
you all new names along with birth certificates for all of you. We
want you to appear to be like any other emigrant leaving the PRA.
They won’t stand up to deep background scrutiny, but they will pass
a police or border checkpoint. We’ll give you some cash and prepaid
and debit cards with enough money on them to allow you to get to the
Free States. Don’t use cash for amounts over $50 as using cash is
suspicious. The route will be circuitous because the main routes will
be watched carefully.”</p><p>“You’ll
be given a burner cell phone and a laptop computer that we’ll
contact you if need be. We’ve set up an email account online for
you. The laptop has military-grade encryption software for sending
you messages. The voice communications on the cell phone is also
encrypted. The tower pinging and GPS locator have been coded with
special software to give a false location to anyone should they
attempt to track the phone. That means the mapping app on the cell
phone won’t work, either. You’ll be given a standard highway GPS
and paper maps for navigating. I’ll show you how to encrypt and
decrypt a message later.”</p><p>“The
WiFi on the laptop and cell phone have been disabled so the only way
to connect the computer to the Internet is through a USB connector
cable to the cell phone. That way you can’t accidentally give away
your location with your IP address on a hotel or restaurant WiFi.”
He continued, “Periodically you’ll exchange the phone and laptop
and vehicle registration. Typically, that will be at the beginning of
every move. Your contact will be an agent of the network dressed as a
homeless person.”</p><p>With
that, Rob had to ask, “How will we know which one? There are a lot
of homeless people these days.” And indeed there were due to the
poor economic policies of the PRA that essentially rewarded laziness
and drug usage while taxing the shrinking pool of tax payers more and
more heavily. As a result, few people would put in the 80-hour work
weeks that a new business required of the founder. 
</p><p>“Whenever
you leave your safe house, turn right out of the driveway and
continue along that road as far as you can. If you don’t see the
contact before you get to the end, turn right and keep looking. Just
keep turning right and doing the same thing until you find the
contact. You will be given a safe word before you leave the safe
house that you’ll write on five dollar bills. When you give it to
the agent, they will give you a backpack exactly like the one you
will be given with new items in it. Give the contact your old cell
phone, laptop, map, and receipts in the old backpack and we’ll take
care of them.”</p><p>Rob
persisted, “But how will we know which homeless person to give the
money to?”</p><p>“You
won’t,” shrugged Kevin. “Just give five dollars to every
homeless person you come up on until you get to your contact.
Kindness is always a good policy.”</p><p>Continuing, he said,
“Each morning you will receive a phone call. To ensure it’s the
network calling and not someone else, the first word will be the
previous day’s code word followed by a short message and the next
day’s code word. Until you get to the Free States, do not, and I
repeat this, <i>do not</i><span> attempt
to log into any of the websites you have ever logged in to. This
includes online email, social media, online shopping, and any other
account you have. For that matter, stay off the Internet unless you
are directed to go to a specific site by the network.  Do not call </span><span>or
text</span><i>anyone</i><span>
on the cell phone, especially friends or relatives. What they don’t
know, they can’t be tricked, forced, or coerced into telling.”</span></p><p>“<span>Would
the </span><span>government</span><span>
do that?” asked Kat fearfully.</span></p><p>“They
most certainly would,” said Kevin seriously. “The people in
charge of the PRA are ruthless in their efforts to stamp out any form
of dissension or intolerance.” He pronounced intolerance with a
little sneer.</p><p>
  <span>Rob
and Kat knew what he was saying was true because they had already
heard of many churches and schools shuttered because the</span>
  <span>y</span>
  <span>
refused to perform same sex weddings and validate homosexuality and
sinful lifestyles. They had also heard of people disappearing in the
middle of the night and rumors of re-education centers but no one
seemed to know of anyone who ever came back from</span>
  
  <span>one. Rob wondered if ‘the
disappeared’ were sent to those centers or had escaped through the
network </span>
  <span>or had been </span>
  <span>murder</span>
  <span>ed
</span>
  <span>by the state</span>
  <span>.
He guessed that it was some of both.</span>
</p><p>“You’ll
be given a vehicle to travel in and told one destination at a time,
through your contact”, said Kevin. “Now, I’m sure you have
questions, so fire away.”</p><p>Kat
was first, “Why can’t you just transport us across the border in
the back of a van like the one we came here in”?</p><p>“<span>Good
question”, replied Kevin. “</span><span>A</span><span>ll
vehicles leaving the PRA are searched for </span><span>items
of excessive value before they are allowed to leave. It would be hard
to explain four people crouched in the back of a van. </span><span>A
family of emigrants leaving in a minivan are common enough to hardly
give a second glance.</span><span>”</span></p><p>That
made sense, they thought. “What about flying us out?” asked Rob.</p><p>“<span>Two
reasons,” answered Kevin, “One, identification papers are given
extra scrutiny at airports and, second, facial recognition software
would spot you in a minute </span><span>and
alert the authorities. Security cameras are everywhere </span><span>and
most of them are connected to the Internet</span><span>.
You won’t be able to avoid them completely, so stick to the route
you are given and only stop at </span><span>mom-and-pop</span><span>
gas stations and diners because they are less likely to have security
cameras.”</span></p><p>“<span>Will
we be given new identities by each contact?” asked Rob.</span></p><p>“No,”
said Kevin. “It’s too easy to get confused with too many changes.
Besides, we think you’ll be out of the PRA within a few days.”</p><p>“<span>What
will happen to our belongings we left behind?” asked Kat, thinking
of the photos and trinkets </span><span>the
girls had given her that </span><span>she
had been forced to leave </span><span>behind</span><span>.</span></p><p>“<span>There
is nothing we can do </span><span>at the
moment,” </span><span>said Kevin. “</span><span>Law
enforcement has already been to your house </span><span>with
arrest and search warrants. By now it is likely they have gone
through everything you owned searching for clues about where you have
gone. And there is no doubt that </span><span>you
house</span><span> will be under
surveillance for a while.”</span></p><p>“Now,
look through what you brought with you and make a list of necessities
you’ll need and we’ll have them delivered,” said Kevin.</p><p>Rob
and Kat did just that and spent the next hour looking through their
own and the girls meager belongings and made their list. When they
brought it to the living room they saw that Kevin had set up a camera
and several backgrounds on tripods. Kevin took all their pictures for
their new identifications. “I’ll submit these and your new
identities will be here in the morning,” Kevin said. “Your new
names are Steven and Susan Smith. Your daughters are Grace, for the
older one”, he said “and Zoe, for the younger”, indicating
Emma. Make up some dates for your birthdays and give them to me. For
the rest of the day, practice calling each other those names until
you can say them naturally”.</p><p>When
Kat told the girls that they would be getting new temporary names,
they thought that calling each other by their new names was great fun
while “Steven” and “Susan” tried to respond when their new
names were called. 
</p><p>Kat
went through the kitchen and found something suitable for a quick
dinner and regretted not having a better meal for Rob and the girls.</p><p>The
reality of their situation began to soak in after dinner while they
had quiet time to think about it. They were never going back home and
it would be a long time before they would be able to contact friends
or family, even to just let them know they were safe. Rob and Kat
kissed both girls good night with an, “I love you,” to each. 
</p><p>“Ab--
uh, Grace, I mean, would you like to say prayers tonight?”, asked
Rob.</p><p>“Not
tonight, Dad,” she replied. They all held hands and ‘Steven’
began, “Our Father, thank you for keeping us safe from those who
would harm us. We follow where you lead because we trust you as our
shepherd. Thank you for Kevin and Eric and Maggie and all the other
people helping us. Lord, I ask your protection for them as they risk
their freedom and lives to help others. Give us all the bravery they
have shown us. Thank you for the blessing of the dream and I pray
that it glorifies your name. And all God’s children said,” 
</p><p>“Amen,”
they said together.</p><p>Rob
and Kat prepared for bed while Rob finally shaved and brushed his
teeth. The shower felt good on his back as he thought about the dream
and the events of the past few days. They had gone from a normal
family struggling to make financial ends meet and trying to raise
their daughters to honor God to a scared group of refugees trying to
stay out of re-education centers, prison, or worse. He wondered if
this was how the Jews felt in Nazi occupied countries.</p><p>After
his shower and the girls were in bed, he confided in Kat about his
worries and doubts. “Why did God choose me? I mean, I’m not some
great biblical scholar and teacher like Paul. I don’t have the
passion of someone like Reverend Billy Graham. Hell, I’m not even a
very good Christian!” he paused. “See, I cussed! I don’t read
the Bible often enough or pray enough. Why me, Kat?”</p><p>“Honey,
you know that God doesn’t choose you based on what you can do, but
instead on who <i>you are.”</i> She went on, “Moses was a
stutterer and killed an Egyptian. David was an adulterer and had a
man killed so he could steal his wife. Jonah tried to run away. Peter
acted without thinking. Even Paul had helped persecute new followers
of Jesus. What all those people had in common was obedience and their
love for and trust in God. God <i>knows </i>we are imperfect. He is
forced to use imperfect people because they are the only kind there
are.”</p><p>Rob
knew all those things but was glad to hear them spoken out loud. “So,
you’re not upset that we basically lost everything?” he asked
timidly.</p><p>“Of
course, I’m upset,” she said. “But it’s all just stuff that
can be replaced. Most of it anyway. The important thing is we’re
still together, and we’re still free.” Then quickly as she looked
up, “God, keep us together.”</p><p>Rob
felt reassured like he hadn’t since the school had been closed and
hugged his wife tightly and kissed her and fell asleep thinking about
the dream.</p><p>Before
he knew it, Kevin was waking them up and it was still early. As Rob
was getting dressed, he thought he smelled fresh coffee and when he
entered the kitchen, he saw someone had prepared a nice breakfast of
coffee, juice, bacon, scrambled eggs and toast for them. “Thank you
for breakfast,” said Rob.</p><p>“Don’t
thank me. Those sandwiches you had yesterday were the limit of my
cooking ability,” said Kevin. “One of the ladies that support the
network came over early and made it.”</p><p>“Well,
thank her for us,” said Kat, pouring a cup of coffee.</p><p>“No
need, Susan.” said Kevin, using her assumed identity. “We seek
neither recognition nor thanks for doing God’s work. Your new IDs
should be here in a while, so pack your things, you’re leaving this
afternoon.”</p><p>When
their newly forged identification papers arrived in an envelope by
courier, Rob and Kat were impressed by the quality of the documents.
There were passports, driver licenses, and birth certificates. The
forgers had made them with wear and creases to make them appear more
authentic. They had even touched up the photos in the passports and
driver licenses so they would appear to have been made at different
times with different hairstyles.</p><p>They
had all their possessions packed and ready to go when they heard the
garage door open, a vehicle enter, and the door close. Rob and Kat
thanked Kevin for his help. He gave one last instruction as they
loaded into the back of the van, maybe the same one that had brought
them here, wherever here was. “Your driver will take you to your
drop off point and give you keys to a vehicle. Don’t forget to turn
right as you exit and look for your contact. Your first password is
‘sip’. The first contact will only give you a map only. Goodbye,
Smith family and Godspeed.”</p><p>With
that he closed the door to the van and they were off. Again the van
made several turns so that they were thoroughly confused about how to
get back to the safe house and eventually stopped. As the driver
opened the back door, they saw they were in an underground garage. He
handed Rob an envelope containing a key with a remote door opener and
instructed Rob not to press the unlock button until he was gone.</p><p>When
he had gone, Rob pushed the unlock button and was rewarded with a
faint beep. Pressing it again as they all looked around, Abby said,
“Over there! In the next row. It’s the light blue Toyota
minivan.”</p><p>They
all carried their suitcases and bags and stuffed animals to the
minivan. Rob gave it a quick look and guessed it to be about 10 years
old. He hoped it had been well maintained. 
</p><p>After
they had loaded the van and buckled up, Rob checked the fuel gauge,
saw it was full and began to wonder where they were. As he followed
the signs to the exit, Kat wrote ‘sip’ on a five dollar bill.
When they got to the exit, Rob turned right onto the street. As they
got to the first intersection with a stop sign, sure enough, there
was a homeless-looking woman panhandling. Rob pulled over and the
woman came to the passenger side window. 
</p><p>Kat
said, “Good morning. I have something for you,” as she gave the
woman a coded $5 bill. 
</p><p>The
woman took it and said a gruff, “Thank you,” and backed away. 
</p><p>Rob
and Kat looked at her expectantly for a few seconds until she said,
“What? You want something else?”</p><p>Feeling
sheepish, Rob said, “Uh, no, have a blessed day,” and pulled
away. “Well, I guess that wasn’t our contact,” he said aloud.
“Honey, get another bill ready.”</p><p>The
next homeless panhandler they saw was a rough looking man who looked
to be in his 50s with a sign that said, “Veteran. Anything helps.”</p><p>Once
again, Rob pulled over as Kat lowered the window holding the coded $5
bill out for the man. The man walked over and took the bill, looked
at it quickly, then leaned toward the van as though he was stumbling
and caught himself on the door, surprising Kat, surreptitiously
pulling a manila envelope out of his oversize coat and dropping it
into Kat’s lap. 
</p><p>“Pardon
me for my clumsiness, ma’am,” he said. “God be with you,” as
he backed away.</p><p>“And
you, too,” replied Kat.</p><p>After
they had driven away, Kat tore open the envelope and pulled out the
map and a slip of paper with the name and address of a non-chain
motel in New Hampshire a couple of hours away from their home. As
they had been told, the route was highlighted on the map. 
</p><p>When
she had read it, she questioned aloud, “New Hampshire? That
couldn’t be right. That is opposite of the direction that we want
to go.”</p><p>“Well,
what better way to throw them off our trail than by going opposite of
what they are looking?” Rob asked rhetorically. 
</p><p>The
outlined route stayed off the freeways, sticking to lesser used state
roads and with Kat navigating, they managed to find their way to a
roadside motel in central New Hampshire near Laconia. Rob remembered
coming to the area with his parents and staying at similar motels
like this one. They went to see the Old Man of the Mountain and he
wished it hadn’t fallen before the girls could see it. As a college
student he and friends would scrape enough money together to fit four
to a two bed motel room for a weekend of skiing in the White
Mountains.</p><p>He
went inside and rang the bell on the counter when no one appeared at
the desk. After a few seconds, a man who looked as craggy and old as
the Old Man of the Mountain appeared. Rob smiled at the thought and
the old man, or OMM as he mentally nicknamed him, said in a New
England drawl, “Can I help you?”</p><p>“Yes,
I would like two adjoining rooms, please,” said Rob.</p><p>“You’re
in luck. The period between spring break and summer is slow. No snow
and no tourists,” OMM explained. “How long will you be staying?”
he asked.</p><p>Rob
hadn’t thought about it until then and quickly said, “Just a few
days.”</p><p>“ID,
please,” said OMM tonelessly.</p><p>Rob
fished out his forged driver license and handed it to him. OMM peered
through his bifocals at the driver license and two-finger typed his
name into the computer. 
</p><p>“That’ll
be $120 for the two rooms for each night. Will that be okay?” asked
OMM.</p><p>“Yes,
that will be fine,” said Rob, handing him the prepaid debit card,
trusting there was enough money to pay for it all. “Is there a
family restaurant nearby?” he inquired.</p><p>“My
son-in-law owns a little diner called Joseph’s down the road.
Pretty good food at a decent price, too.”</p><p>“Thanks,”
replied Rob, “We’ll try it.”</p><p>“Thank
you, Mr. Smith,” said OMM, handing him passkey cards. It took Rob a
second to realize that OMM was referring to him. “The Internet pass
code is on the card envelope.”</p><p>“We
won’t be needing it,” replied Rob as he returned the envelope to
OMM.</p><p>He
got in the van and Kat asked, “What took you so long?”</p><p>“Oh,
I was just talking to the Old Man of the Mountain,” he answered,
smiling cryptically.</p><p>They
unloaded their bags and went into their rooms which were surprisingly
nice given the age of the place and the relative cost. “That’s
probably part of the reason why they picked it,” thought Rob.</p><p>“Don’t
unpack,” said Rob, “We may not be here long.”</p><p>After
unloading, they all went back to the minivan and drove to Joseph’s.
As they went in Kat pointed out a sign that read, “No WiFi. Put
down your cell phones and talk to each other,” which suited them
fine.</p><p>The
diner was a throwback to the 60s complete with aluminum-trimmed
Formica tables and mini jukeboxes. Emma amused herself with the
jukebox while the others looked at the menu which listed simple,
hardy choices typical of New England cuisine. When their order came,
they thanked the server and ate quickly. Paying with cash, Rob left a
moderate tip. He considered leaving more, but Kat quietly reminded
him that they didn’t want to be remembered.</p><p><a id="en-ESV-5861" name="en-ESV-5861"></a>
<span>Back at the motel, </span><span>Rob
idly looked in the night stand drawer and found a copy of </span><span>the</span><span>
Gideon’s Bible. He realized for the first time that one of the
things he had forgotten to get was the bible Kat had given them their
first Christmas together. He thumbed until he found Joshua 1:</span>9
and read, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do
not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the <span>Lord</span>
your God is with you wherever you go.” “God, I trust you to be
true,” he thought. He closed the bible and put it in his suitcase,
silently thanking the faithfulness of the Gideon who had put it
there. It wasn’t really stealing as the Gideons actually hoped
people would take the bibles.</p><p>Rob lay awake for a
long time and when he finally did fall asleep he was awakened by cell
phone. He picked it up and answered. “Hello?”</p><p>The voice on the
other end said, “Sip, code green, gland. Repeat, sip, code green,
gland,” and no more. Code green meant all clear but to leave an
hour before checkout time.</p><p>“Well, looks like
we have a short stay here,” he said to Kat. “We check out and
leave this morning. Today’s password is ‘gland’.”</p><p>“I’ll wake the
girls,” replied Kat.</p><p>As they busied
themselves with their morning routine and packing, Rob went in search
for a fast food joint that served breakfast to go. When he returned
with the food, they all thanked God and broke their fast hungrily.</p><p>They loaded their
bags as Rob went to check out at the office. OMM was there and asked,
“Leaving so soon?”</p><p>Rob replied, “Yea.
Gotta be moving on,” as he took the receipt and scribbled a
signature that could have said anything. 
</p><p>Returning to the
minivan, he handed Kat the receipt and debit card and reminded her to
stuff them along with the map, cell phone, and laptop into the
backpack. Turning right out of the motel parking lot, they were at
the edge of town and saw a shabbily dressed man holding a sign that
simply said “Homeless” and a dog on a leash. Rob pulled over as
Kat unrolled her window and held out a five dollar bill with the code
word on it. The man walked over, took the money and glanced at it. He
took his backpack off and handed it to Kat who gave him hers in
return.</p><p>As they drove away,
Kat opened it and withdrew the cell phone, gift cards and map from a
manila envelope and examined it. Finally she said, “It says we’re
going to Utica, New York.”</p><p>“Utica, New
York?”, inquired her husband. “Never been there.”</p><p>“It looks to about
180 miles as the crow flies,” replied Kat peering at the map. “Turn
around, we’re headed in the wrong direction. There is an address on
the map.”</p><p>Rob pulled into a
convenience store parking lot. “Let me see the route,” he
requested. After a moment he said, “But the route is anything but
as the crow flies. It will take us 4 or 5 hours to get there.”</p><p>Kat agreed, again
taking her role as navigator and instructing Rob to turn left back
onto the highway. 
</p><p>As it turned out, it
was a rather pleasant trip through the New England countryside that
relatively few ever bothered to make; the destination being more
important than the journey. The only thing that bothered Rob was the
remote feeling of the area. They were literally only a few hundred
miles from some of the most crowded areas of the northeast, yet they
felt as though they were in another country. 
</p><p>The only time Rob
became worried was when a sheriff’s deputy pulled out of a side
road and followed them for a while. His anxiety peaked when the
deputy turned on his blue strobe lights and siren. Rob knew better
than to try to outrun a police interceptor in a minivan, so he put on
his turn indicator to move to the shoulder as the deputy overtook
them and went around, off to some other emergency as they all
breathed a sigh of relief. 
</p><p>The rest of this leg
passed uneventfully although the girls complained about how dirty the
restrooms were along the route. Rob had read an author commenting in
one of his books that the state of society was in direct correlation
to the cleanliness of public restrooms. He didn’t know if it was
true, but it sure seemed to be.</p><p>When they arrived at
the address there was a shabby-looking motel that caused Emma to make
a face and say, “It looks dirty.”</p><p>The rest had to
agree and question the network’s selection. Rob got out of the
minivan and went to the office to get some rooms. An attendant in his
twenties with tattoos covering his forearms and who could use a shave
was watching TV when he walked in, slowly came to the counter, and
asked, “What can I do for you?”</p><p>Rob asked
hesitantly, “Could I get two adjoining rooms for the night?”</p><p>“Not many people
rent here for the night. Mostly families who’ve been evicted from
their homes renting by the week, until a church can help them out,”
said the attendant. “You just traveling through?” he asked
conversationally.</p><p>That caught Rob by
surprise. For the first time he looked closely at the attendant.  He
was even more surprised when he noticed the young man’s t-shirt
read ‘Christ Church of Utica’. Then he felt ashamed of his
initial negative thoughts of the young man a vowed to himself to try
to not be so judgmental of people who looked different from himself.</p><p>“Yea, just heading
through,” agreed Rob noncommittally. He paid for the room with his
card and wondered how extensive the network was and if this motel and
Christ Church of Utica was part of it. It was probably better that he
didn’t know, he thought.</p><p>“If you stay more
than a night, I’ll apply this to the weekly rate,” said the
attendant. “God bless you and your family and safe travels.”</p><p>Rob thanked him and
took the passkey cards.</p><p>They went to their
rooms on the back side of the motel and unloaded their bags into
their room which surprised them all. The furnishings were old and
cheap, but at least they were clean. The network had come through
again.</p><p>Evening went by
uneventfully and the next morning when the cell phone rang the caller
said, “Gland, code black, pong. Repeat, gland, code black, pong.”
and hung up. Code black meant to stay in place until at least the
next phone call, but be ready to go at a moment’s notice. 
</p><p>Rob used the room
phone to the front desk to inform the attendant. This time a young
woman answered. When he told her that they would be staying an
additional day, the woman asked, “Do you need assistance from one
of the local churches for permanent housing or a job or anything?”</p><p>Rob politely
declined her offer and went for breakfast for them all. As he was
driving back with the food, the cell phone rang unexpectedly. He
answered with a nervous, “Hello?”</p><p>The voice on the
phone said, “Pong, code red, jealousy. Repeat: pong, code red,
jealousy.” 
</p><p>Rob’s heart rate
jumped at the mention of the urgent evacuation command as he sped
back to the motel. Running inside he told them of the urgent
evacuation message and ordered them to all load as quickly as
possible and to leave nothing behind. “Come on, Abby,” he urged.
“We have to leave as soon as possible.” They would just have to
forfeit the fee for the room. Rob felt that somehow the network had
already planned for that.</p><p>Driving out of the
motel parking lot and turning right, they almost immediately saw a
man standing at an intersection with a sign that said, “God is
good. Please help.” Rob pulled over while Kat handed him a coded
five dollar bill. The man looked at it and stuffed it into his pocket
and quickly exchanged backpacks with them and said, “God is good
all the time.”</p><p>Rob drove away while
Kat opened the backpack and pulled out the folded map. Their new
destination was Buffalo, New York about 6 to 8 hours away depending
on stops for bathroom breaks and gas. Again, the route took them well
off the beaten path, through lovely countryside that relatively few
non-locals would ever see. Rob wondered what had changed so quickly
to cause them to go from a code black to a code red in less than an
hour. There would be time to worry about that later as he followed a
circuitous route around the edge of Utica.</p><p>After several
bathroom breaks, food stops, and gas stops, they arrived uneventfully
at a hotel near Buffalo. They were so close to the border between the
PRA and the Free States that Rob and Kat wondered why they weren’t
just told to cross over today. But the network had brought them safe
so far, so they trusted in God and the network to keep them safe for
the rest of the journey.</p><p>Rob checked in using
his assumed identity and asked where the nearest Walmart was as they
needed some items. Receiving directions, Rob went in search for the
items while Kat gathered their dirty laundry to wash in the hotel’s
guest laundry room. After supper and laundry, Kat asked the girls to
come into the room for a story.</p><p>Reading from the
first book of Samuel, she read the story of David and how King Saul
had chased him and tried to kill him, but God always protected him.
When she had finished she told the Abby and Emma, “God always looks
out for his people, and he will look out for us.”</p><p>Abby hesitantly
asked, “Then why couldn’t he protect us back at home?”</p><p>“Because his plan
was not for us to live in fear in Massachusetts for the rest of our
lives. We’re confident that he has a better life for us somewhere
else. We’re not sure but wherever that is, God has already been
there preparing a place,” answered Kat. “Now off to bed with you
both. We’re getting close to our new home in the Free States.”</p><p><br/>
</p><p>
Although it wasn’t her usual occupation, Joanna had partially
begged, and bullied for a spot on the fugitive tracking squad
detailed specifically with capturing Robert MacArthur and his family.
 There was no doubt that they were being aided by a system of
smugglers. So far, the PRA had been unable to penetrate their
organization, but it was only a matter of time before they were
discovered and shut down.</p><p>She usually didn’t
care what happened to dissidents and troublemakers, but this was
personal. Each day brought new sadness, which gave way to anger, and
then frustration.</p><p>
The next morning the family rose early and while eating at the
hotel’s complimentary breakfast, the cell phone rang. Rob answered
a quiet, “Hello?” The voice on the incoming call said, “Jealousy,
code red, acadia. Repeat, jealousy, code red, acadia.”</p><p>“We have to leave.
Now!” said Rob urgently.</p><p>“Again?” asked
Emma.</p><p>“Yes, sweetie,”
replied Rob.</p><p>After hurriedly
packing their bags and loading the minivan, they again looked for
their contact. When they located the contact, they were somewhat
surprised to see a young woman with a close-cropped head and several
facial piercings holding a sign that said, “Too proud to prostitute
myself”. As they pulled up, they gave her the marked bill and
exchanged backpacks. The courier said, “God be with you. Now, go!
They’ll be here in a few minutes!”</p><p>It takes all types,
thought Rob as he pulled away, driving as quickly as he could without
attracting attention. Kat unfolded a map and saw that they were only
going a couple of hours away to another motel in Jamestown, NY. “Why
can’t we just go ahead and cross over to Canada or the Free
States?” asked Kat with the sound of frustration in her voice.</p><p>“I don’t know,”
replied Rob. “Maybe they think we’re so close to Canada, we would
be heading there and be waiting for us,” he suggested. “Plus
there are relatively few crossing places into Canada near Buffalo.
And these days Canada is not much better than the PRA.”</p><p>Kat considered it
for a moment and accepted it in the absence of contradictory
evidence. Besides, there were more places to cross from the PRA into
the Free States along the southern border of New York. Although most
of the county roads between New York and Ohio were officially closed,
only a simple gate with one or two border patrol agents barred many.
With their liberal drug laws and continual need for more revenue, the
PRA was more concerned with money being smuggled out of the country
than contraband being smuggled in. That’s the problem with
socialism; eventually you run out of other people’s money.</p><p>The relatively short
ride to Jamestown ended up at an extended stay hotel. “Looks nicer
than the other places we’ve stayed at,” announced Kat. “But I
hope we won’t be here long.”</p><p>“Me, too,”
chimed in the others.</p><p>The girls had been
real troopers during this escape but Kat could sense that their
silence was due more to stress than boredom. With every police car
they encountered, Kat could sense their tension rising. From her
medical training, Kat knew that people were not made to be under
stress for prolonged periods.  Stress causes very real physical and
psychological problems in people. Kat prayed that they could put up
with just a few more days and then find some way to relax and forget
they were on the run.</p><p>After checking in,
Rob ordered pizza delivery and was summoned to the lobby when it
arrived. The delivery person, a young woman in her mid twenties
wearing a sports team jacket at least 3 sizes too big said to him,
“You look familiar. You from around here?”</p><p>Thinking quick, Rob
answered, “I grew up here as a kid and moved away a long time ago.
Maybe you are thinking of some of my relatives.”</p><p>The woman shrugged
and said, “Maybe that’s it,” then thanked him for his tip and
left.</p><p>Rob began to worry
about her possible recognition of him. There were most likely
warrants for his arrest, but he didn’t believe his “crime” rose
to the level of a most wanted list. Praying that it was just a
coincidence, Rob returned to the room with the pizza. 
</p><p>For the first time,
Rob turned on the laptop and connected it to his smart phone once it
had booted up. He checked the email and was surprised to find an
encrypted message waiting for him in the inbox. He ran the decryption
program as he had been taught and used the passwords he had
memorized. The password was four words selected by the numbers of
five rolled dice. This method, along with the requirement that the
program be restarted after each wrong guess, was extremely effective
in eliminating automated computer programs that ran random sequences
of words and letters and characters that could guess a password in a
few hours. But as an additional measure, the program decryption
program was written in a way that shredded the message by writing
over the message with random data after five incorrect guesses. Rob
thought carefully and typed in “dingo swarm 55th hotbox”. To his
mild surprise, the message appeared and said.</p><p>“To the Smith
family:</p><p>The authorities have
been working very hard to find you and as you have been told, they
have gotten very close to finding you several times.  But by God’s
mercy, our people inside have been able to tip us off in time. We are
unsure how they are tracking you but we will continue to use all our
resources to keep you safe. 
</p><p>Your names and faces
have been on the news and they are claiming that you are domestic
terrorists, so only go in public places when you must. Your next call
will take you across the border to the Free States. There are many
here who are praying for your safety. Godspeed and God bless you.”</p><p>Rob closed the
message and thought about it as the encryption program shredded it.
It didn’t tell him much more than he had already known or guessed,
but it was good to know that they would soon be out of the PRA.</p><p>He shut down the
computer, put it away and picked up the Gideon’s bible he had taken
from the first hotel they had stayed at. “When was that?”
wondered Rob, “Was it really only three days ago?” It seemed that
their old lives had never existed and they had been on the run
forever. He opened to Psalms 28 and read:</p><p><b>1 </b>To you, O
Lord, I call;<br/>
my rock, be not deaf to me,<br/>
lest, if you be
silent to me,<br/>
I become like those who go down to the pit.</p><p><b>2 </b>Hear the
voice of my pleas for mercy,<br/>
when I cry to you for help,<br/>
when
I lift up my hands<br/>
toward your most holy sanctuary.</p><p><b>3 </b>Do not drag
me off with the wicked,<br/>
with the workers of evil,<br/>
who
speak peace with their neighbors<br/>
while evil is in their hearts.</p><p><b>4 </b>Give to
them according to their work<br/>
and according to the evil of their
deeds;<br/>
give to them according to the work of their
hands;<br/>
render them their due reward.</p><p><b>5 </b>Because
they do not regard the works of the Lord<br/>
or the work of his
hands,<br/>
he will tear them down and build them up no more.</p><p><b>6 </b>Blessed be
the Lord!<br/>
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.</p><p><b>7 </b>The Lord is
my strength and my shield;<br/>
in him my heart trusts, and I am
helped;<br/>
my heart exults,<br/>
and with my song I give thanks
to him.</p><p><b>8 </b>The Lord is
the strength of his people;<br/>
he is the saving refuge of his
anointed.</p><p><b>9 </b>Oh, save
your people and bless your heritage!<br/>
Be their shepherd and
carry them forever.</p><p>David must have felt
so alone when he wrote that, thought Rob. His own king, whom David
had never done anything to offend, was literally hunting him down to
kill him. Rob thought about his situation for a moment and the
reality of it frightened him. The hearts of the leaders in the PRA
were owned by the evil one. They professed tolerance and love but
when you got down to it, they loved no one and tolerated only people
who agreed with them 100%. Deviation from their ideology was not
tolerated in any form and those who were determined to be ineducable
were eliminated. It had happened innumerable times throughout history
and it seemed that totalitarian regimes were always just a few more
murders away from utopia.</p><p>“Please protect us
the way you protected David 3,000 years ago,” prayed Rob silently.
	The food and stress and quiet soon made his eyelids too heavy to
keep open and he fell asleep with the bible open on the bed beside
him. 
</p><p>While it was still
dark outside the phone woke him from his slumber as he sleepily
answered, “Hello?”</p><p>The message was
simple as always, “Acadia, code red. Jasmine. Repeat: acadia, code
red, jasmine.”</p><p>Immediately Rob woke
Kat and the girls and hurriedly packed their clothing. Once they had
picked up their new backpack, they looked at the route outlined on
the map and noticed the crossing point was only a few miles away just
south of Jamestown. As they were pulling away from the market, a
black SUV pulled out from a side street and blocked their way. Two
more quickly appeared behind them, trapping them.</p><p>A man in black
tactical gear jumped out of the SUV in front, pointed what looked
like a machine gun at them and yelled in a commanding voice,
“EVERYONE OUT OF THE VEHICLE! NOW! KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE
THEM!”</p><p>Rob glanced in the
rear view mirror and saw several more people pointing guns at them.
But what angered him most was the look of pure terror on his
daughters’ faces. “What do we do, Daddy?”, cried Emma.</p><p>“Just obey the
man, baby girl,” said Rob is what he hoped was a reassuring tone. 
</p><p>As they all got out
of the van, one of the men screamed at Emma, “DROP THE DOLL, NOW!”
</p><p>Rob took a step
towards Emma and said, “Put it dow-” when one of the men rushed
towards him and butt-stroked him in the stomach with his rifle,
knocking the breath from him. As he doubled over trying to breathe,
he was confused by Abby’s frantic cries of. “You promised not to
hurt him! You promised not to hurt him!” He looked over just in
time to see a man holding Abby just as he felt a heavy blow on the
side of his head as everything went black.</p><p>
Rob slowly awoke to a pounding headache and realized that he was
naked in a bare room. Not only that, he was cold. Colder than he ever
remembered. “Kat! Emma! Abby! Where were they? What did Abby say?
Why did she say that? Where were they? Were they safe?”, he thought
as he shivered from the cold. He looked around the room but saw only
bare walls, a door, and a mirror, which he was sure was a two-way so
his captors could watch him. It wasn’t cold enough in the room to
cause a quick hypothermia-induced unconsciousness and death, but it
was cold enough that he couldn’t get warm and the bare concrete
floor sucked the heat from his body. He recognized this type of
physical stress as a type of torture to break his will.</p><p>After what seemed
like several long cold hours, a disembodied voice asked, “Are you
cold Mr. MacArthur?” with a sadistically cruel inflection. 
</p><p>“Where are my wife
and daughters?” Rob screamed at the voice.</p><p>“Don’t worry,”
answered the voice. “Your family is safely locked up elsewhere in
this facility.” 	</p><p>Rob heard a loud
buzzing from the door for a couple of seconds and when it opened, a
man entered wearing what could be described as a stereotypical
government business suit. He humorously wondered if the suit had a
tag that with a national stock number sewn into the suit and mentally
dubbed him GS for government suit. “I asked if you were cold, Mr.
MacArthur”, he repeated. 
</p><p>Rob glared at him
and between chattering teeth said, “If you harm my family”.</p><p>“You’ll what,
Mr. MacArthur?”, asked GS. “I’m in charge here and if you want
them to remain safe you’ll answer all my questions to my
satisfaction. Is that understood?”</p><p>Rob nodded
resignedly. “Yes,” he said quietly. He was prepared to die for
his God, but he could not bear to think of what they might do to his
wife and precious daughters if he did not cooperate.</p><p>“Good”, said GS.
“First, how was your dream synthesized?”</p><p>“What? You can’t
synthesize feelings in dreams. Everyone knows that,” retorted Rob.</p><p>GS looked at the
mirror, which caused Rob to look just in time to see a green light
through the mirror.</p><p>“Our stress
sensors indicate you are telling the truth,” said GS. “So, tell
me how you evaded us for so long and remember that your family’s
safety depends on your truthful answers.”</p><p>Rob told them all he
knew minus a few key details such as Pastor John’s involvement.  He
saw the wisdom of compartmentalization. What he didn’t know, he
couldn’t tell. 
</p><p>Again the light was
green. 
</p><p>“Good,” cooed
GS. Then to the mirror, “Warm the room and bring him his clothes
and some chairs.”</p><p>GS continued, “We
hacked into your neuralizer account and traced all the downloaded
copies of your dream and planted a tiny little virus into most of the
accounts that erases only the dream.  And our bots are constantly
searching for new uploads and infecting them. And this.” he said,
holding up Rob’s keychain, “is one of the last copies in
existence.  Within a few days, our agents will have tracked down them
all and erased them all.”</p><p>The door opened and
a woman brought in Rob’s clothing, left and returned with two
chairs. He turned in modesty but was almost too cold to care. He
dressed quickly, fumbling with the buttons and laces as the woman
watched his embarrassment with a cruel smile.</p><p>“Thank you,
Joanna”, he said to the woman. “Better?”, asked GS in what Rob
thought was a falsely sympathetic voice.</p><p>Trying to control
his emotions, Rob simply nodded his head.</p><p>“I’ve told you
what you wanted to know, now tell me where my family is,” said Rob
through still chattering teeth.</p><p>“They are safe
elsewhere in this facility,” said GS noncommittally. “Without
your daughter’s, Abby’s, help, we might not have caught you
before you slipped away into that intolerable hellhole they call the
Free States. You see, your daughter used one of your old cell phones
to download a social media app to contact one of our agents who she
believed to be a rather handsome young man.  Our agent convinced her
to tell us where you were. She wasn’t exactly sure, but the pizza
delivery person remembered your face and called us with a tip early
this morning.” He paused for a moment and continued, shaking his
head, “Where would we be if not for the silly emotions of teenage
girls?”</p><p>“That’s what
Abby meant,” thought Rob.</p><p>He continued, “After
we are finished here, you and your wife will be tried for hate crimes
and sentenced to a work-reeducation camp.”</p><p>“What will happen
to my daughters?” asked Rob fearfully.</p><p>“They will be made
wards of the state where all the backwards-thinking nonsense you have
poisoned their minds with will be erased.  They will be instructed to
be good, tolerant citizens.”</p><p>“I’ll bet the
tolerance isn’t extended to Christians,” thought Rob dryly.</p><p>GS motioned to
Joanna to come near and whispered, “Find out if there are any more
copies.”</p><p>GS and the woman he
called Joanna left and Rob stood there wondering what his next move
should be.  He considered attacking the next person who entered the
room but quickly dismissed the thought as he knew that he had no
training in fighting or combat.  
</p><p>As he warmed, he
sought guidance in the last thing he had, his God.  “Lord,” he
began aloud, “Why have you brought is this far and allowed us to be
captured?  I trust in you, but I am afraid for myself and my
daughters. I don’t know what to do. They want to destroy my family
and take my children from me.  I’ve lost my job, my home, my
family, and maybe my life.  Haven’t I always tried to follow the
example of your son, Jesus? Lord, please tell me.” as tears flowed
down his cheeks.</p><p>As he finished his
short prayer the words, “Love them as I have loved you,” came to
his mind.  “How can I love them?” he thought.  
</p><p>But no answer came.</p><p>After an unknown
period of time, Joanna came in with a tray of food.  The food did not
look appetizing, but Rob’s hunger overrode his distaste.</p><p>Joanna said, “It
hurts, doesn’t it? Having the ones you love taken from you.”</p><p>Again Rob said
nothing, wondering where this conversation was going.</p><p>“I requested some
time alone with you so they aren’t watching now. I want to know why
you would post such a divisive, hate-filled, piece or trash?”</p><p>“Have you viewed
it?” asked Rob.</p><p>“Why would I want
to?  It’s already ruined my marriage to my wife!” Joanna shot
back bitterly.</p><p>“Because it is
about how much God loves you,” replied Rob.</p><p>“THERE IS NO GOD!”
screamed Joanna, “HE DOESN’T EXIST!”</p><p>“God's existence
does not require your belief,” replied Rob calmly. “He loves you
anyway.”</p><p>“Well, I certainly
have no love for someone who has allowed so much sickness and evil in
the world,” she snorted.</p><p>Rob considered for a
moment and replied calmly, “God only gave man what he wanted; to
know good and evil. Man has brought us murder, wars, rapes, slavery,
and thousands of terrible things. God gave you free will to do as you
please. You can do evil, terrible things or you can do good things.
In the end He asks only that you give yourself back to him.”</p><p>“Really?” she
asked sardonically. “Then why does God not want me to be happy? He
took away the woman I love,” she said bitterly.</p><p>“God does want you
to be happy. But happy in him with his love and morality,” replied
Rob.</p><p>“But I’ve been a
good person,” she began, “I obey the law, I pay my taxes, I love
my wife, I’m kind to animals.”</p><p>“Man’s measure
of good is not God’s measure of good,” said Rob calmly. “God
made man and woman to be his companions.  To freely love him and
accept his love in return and to live with him in paradise.  All he
asked them to do was obey his one rule. But they chose disobedience
instead and were banished from paradise forever.”</p><p>“So people were
kicked out for one infraction.” said Joanna.  “Seems kind of
harsh.”</p><p>“That’s because
God is perfect in every way and cannot be in the presence of
imperfect people,” said Rob.</p><p>“But nobody’s
perfect,” argued Joanna.</p><p>“That’s right.
The bible says, ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.’  No one gets to heaven on their own,” he answered.</p><p>“I don’t believe
any of it,” declared Joanna.  “I believe science.”</p><p>“Good,” said
Rob, the science teacher in him stirring, “Let me ask you a few
questions: What do you believe created everything? How did nothing
become something? How did nonliving things become living things? Why
did some plants and animals evolve but others didn't?”</p><p>“Well, the big
bang created everything, and evolution created all the plants and
animals just like science said it did,” said Joanna with
confidence.</p><p>“But that doesn’t
answer the question of how the universe came into being and how
non-living molecules came to life and formed all the creatures that
exist,” insisted Rob. “Science says that something happened to
nothing for no explainable reason and the nothing became everything. 
Does that sound logical and scientific to you?”</p><p>“And then you have
to explain the second big bang where all the created particles formed
themselves into stars and planets and nebulae.”</p><p>“Then you have to
explain how molecules of nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen spontaneously
got together to form amino acids, proteins, and living cells.”</p><p>Joanna interrupted,
“But scientists have proved that amino acids can be spontaneously
formed by lightning in water.”</p><p>Anticipating this
response, Rob continued, “If only 200 amino acids were required to
form in a certain order to form a simple protein, the odds of it
happening would be 10 to the 374<sup>th</sup> power. And it takes
many proteins to make even the simplest cell. By comparison there are
estimated to be 10 to the eightieth power of molecules in the entire
universe.”</p><p>Joanna replied, “But
the fact that we exist proves evolution,” said Joanna.</p><p>“Does it?” he
asked rhetorically. “The fact exists that evolution has never been
observed. The finches Darwin observed in the Galapagos Islands with
slight differences in their beaks are still of the same species and
able to interbreed with finches of other islands.  They are not
separate species.  They had simply become slightly different due to
local mutations.  You can see how much selective breeding can change
what a dog looks like.  Yet they are all still dogs.  Much like the
Western Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Africans and other races changed
over the centuries due to isolation from the other races.  You’ll
notice that in areas where the races overlap geographically, the
people resemble a mixture of the races.”</p><p>Fully into his
science teacher mode, Rob continued, “And evolution cannot explain
why living things violate Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics.”
 The blank look on Joanna’s face prompted him to explain. 
“Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics states, in simple terms,
that over time things naturally decay into a more disorganized state.
 In other words, atoms and molecules do not place themselves into a
more organized formation.”</p><p>“Stop,” demanded
Joanna. “I need to think. Guard!”  And she got up and left.</p><p>Rob prayed he had
not pushed too hard and made her angry.  He didn’t know who Joanna
was, but he suspected she could make things much worse for him and
his family. 
</p><p>
Joanna’s head spun with all the information she had just heard.
“Could any of it be true,” she wondered. After a few minutes
search on the Internet she found arguments both for and against
creationism, a word she had always associated with backwards
thinking, uneducated rubes.  As she read, she discovered that the
creationists arguments were strong and not easily refuted, even
though many professed to do so. She tried to dismiss their arguments
but seeds of doubt stayed in her mind. She decided to try to view the
dream again but was unable to find it on the Internet anywhere. The
agent in charge was right, their bots were quickly erasing all copies
of the dream.  At least on any sites she could find.</p><p>Joanna lay on the
bed and tried to sleep, but her mind raced with the thoughts that she
might have been taught incorrect, or at best biased, information.
Around 3 a.m. she got dressed and went to the cell where MacArthur
was being held.  When she got to the guard desk, she said, “I have
something important to ask the prisoner.”  Part of the conditioning
for questioning of the prisoners involved denying them of a sense of
time so questioning at odd hours was routine.</p><p>The guard slid her
security badge through the door lock sensor and let Joanna into the
cell.  MacArthur was awake and sitting on the floor as there was no
furniture.</p><p>Unsure how to begin,
Joanna said, “Mr. MacArthur, is all you have said true?  Is there
really a God who loves us?”</p><p>Mac, sensing a
change in Joanna, replied simply, “Yes. I believe it’s true.”</p><p>Joanna began, “I’ve
tried to view the dream, but I saw nothing. Why did I not see
anything?”</p><p>Mac had thought
about this and remembered the story from Acts where the Holy Spirit
had entered the disciples and people from all over the known world
heard them proclaim the Word in their own language while others heard
gibberish, scoffing that the disciples of Jesus were drunk.  “I
believe,” replied Mac, “That your determined disbelief prevented
you from experiencing it.”</p><p>Joanna said, “I
want see it now.”</p><p>Rob sat quietly,
wondering how this was playing out.</p><p>She continued, “But,
I can’t find a copy anywhere on the Internet.  The PRA has very
good hackers and has tracked down and erased most of the downloaded
copies.”  
</p><p>That’s it, thought
Rob, they’re trying to find out if I have any secret copies of the
dream.  He thought of the flash drive disguised as a piece of gum. 
GS had not shown or mentioned it. When was that?  Yesterday?  Is this
a trap?</p><p>Something inside him
said, “Give it to her.” Mac immediately rejected the thought, but
it persisted. “Give it to her.”  Mark relaxed although he had not
noticed that he was tense, and told her, “In my belongings, there
is a box of gum, one of the pieces is hiding a micro memory chip.”
He wondered if he was doing the right thing or was foolishly falling
for a trick.</p><p>Joanna said, “Thank
you.”  As turned to leave, she thought to herself, if I see
nothing, I’ll just turn it in to be destroyed and write off this
whole matter as someone trying to fool me into believing in silly
superstitions.</p><p>She went to the
evidence room and searched through MacArthur’s belongings, finding
the package of gum she took out all the pieces and selected the one
that looked slightly different.  After a moment, she discovered the
mechanism that locked the cover on the and removed it.  She put it in
her pocket and returned to her room.</p><p>Pulling out her
laptop, placed the chip into a holder and inserted memory card,
started the neuralizer program and put on the headpiece and settled
down, calming herself.  But this time she wondered what was going to
happen as she started the program.</p><p>Somewhat startled
she immediately felt an all encompassing wave of love like she had
never experienced before. She marveled at the feeling, never wanting
it to go away for a period of time that could have been minutes or
days. A man, shining like the sun but somehow not blinding her
approached and said her name without speaking. “Johanna, my
sister,” he said.  Slightly confused, Joanna thought, but I have no
brothers. 
</p><p>“Who are you?”
she asked.  As the light dimmed, she could see the man of Middle
Eastern heritage.</p><p>“I am Yeshua, the
son of the Father, also called Jesus.  Perhaps you have heard of
me?”, he asked with a slightly amused tone in his voice and a kind
smile on his face. 
</p><p>“Are you real, or
is this just a dream?” replied Joanna.</p><p>“Both,” Yeshua
said. “I have been waiting for you to come to me.”</p><p>“Where am I?”,
she asked.</p><p>“You are in the
healing place.  In it you are loved as only the Father can love you,”
he answered.  “Do you like it?”, he asked with a knowing smile.</p><p>“Yes, very much,”
said Joanna suspiciously.</p><p>“Good.  But we
must move on. Walk with me,” he said in a gentle yet commanding
tone.</p><p>Joanna walked
quietly beside him and a thought came to her mind that she had never
really felt comfortable around men, but this man was different
somehow.</p><p>As though he could
read her mind he said, “My child, I know the pain you have suffered
through. We were there each time your step-father hurt you and cried
with you each time and longed to gather you in my arms to comfort
you.”</p><p>At this Joanna was
suddenly furious and shouted, “If you were there, why didn’t you
stop him?”</p><p>“Each person has
free will. And each person has the capacity to do good or evil.  I
cannot impose my will on them or their lives would be meaningless.
You would be like a robot, doing only what is directed. Soulless and
empty. It can’t be any other way or you cannot become a companion
to the Father. And the Father loves you very much and wants you to be
his companion and friend.  That was his love you felt at the healing
place.”</p><p>“Who is this
‘father’ you are speaking of? And why do you say ‘we’?”,
asked Joanna somewhat irritated. “I thought that Christians were
monotheistic.”</p><p>“We are three yet
one. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” he replied.  “Much
as a woman can be mother, daughter, and sister all at the same time.
We each have a role that we have taken separate from the others yet
still remaining one.  It is a choice made from the beginning. My role
was to pay for your sins.”</p><p>She thought about
this for a minute and asked, “<i>You</i> paid for <i>my</i><span>
sins? How? </span><span>Why?”</span></p><p>“Yes.
By dying for your transgressions, I paid the penalty for you. Because
we love you,” he said simply.</p><p>“God
loves me?” she paused. “God loves me,” she said with more
confidence.</p><p>
  <span>Yeshua
</span>
  <span>beamed with </span>
  <span>a
radiant smile that made Joanna feel the love once more. </span>
  <span>“Joanna,
my child, this is but a tiny glimpse of what awaits those who believe
in me. I wait for you. You must make a decision. To make no decision
is a</span>
  <span>lso a</span>
  <span>
decision.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At
that the program ended. Joanna checked the clock and was confused
that only 5 minutes had passed. Wow, she thought, is that what Alicia
saw? Was it real? Was it true? Were all the bible-thumpers right? She
was confused and the room seemed to spin around her.  </span>
  <span>Then
suddenly she knew what she must do.  With conviction, she took the
chip, replaced it in its hiding place, and slipped it into her
pocket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Walking
out the door </span>
  <span>she w</span>
  <span>ent
directly to the guard station and asked to be let into MacAurthur’s
cell. </span>
  <span>She thanked her and
entered the cell with MacArthur and said, “We’ll need some quiet
time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When
the guard had gone </span>
  <span>Joanna
simply reached into her pocket and held out the disguised microchip
for Rob to see. “I...”, she began and faltered. “</span>
  <span>What
did he mean?”</span>
</p><p>Rob
looked at Joanna and took the chip and asked, “What did you see?”</p><p>Joanna
recounted what she had experienced and turned to Rob. “What does it
mean?”, she repeated.</p><p>Thinking
out loud to himself, Rob said, “Interesting.” Then to Joanna,
“That’s not the dream I had.  Similar, but not the same.”  He
paused for a minute and continued, “It means that God is calling
you. He always has but you have refused to hear him.”</p><p>“Calling
me,” she asked confused, “Calling me to do what?”</p><p>“To
follow him.”</p><p>“Where?”</p><p>“Wherever
he leads you?”</p><p>Joanna
looked apprehensive and said, “I don’t know about that.”</p><p>Rob
looked at her hard and asked softly, “Joanna, have you ever loved
someone with all your heart?”</p><p>Thinking
of her beloved Alicia, Joanna felt a pang of loss and whispered
softly, “Yes. Alicia.”</p><p>“Did
she love you, too?”</p><p>Again
a soft, “Yes.”</p><p>“Would
Alicia ever do something that would not be for your own good?”, Rob
asked.</p><p>Tearfully
she replied, barely above a whisper, “Never.”</p><p>“Neither
would God. He is a good father wanting only good for his children,”
explained Rob.</p><p>“Then
what should I do to follow him?” she asked.</p><p><a id="en-CSB-26127" name="en-CSB-26127"></a>
<span>Rob replied, “First, you must
realize that no one gets to heaven on their own because everyone has
sinned and that includes you. Then you have to believe that Jesus was
the son of God and was worthy to pay for everyone’s sins.  The
Bible says, ‘</span>For God loved Joanna in this way: He gave his
one and only Son, so that if Joanna believes in him, she will not
perish but have eternal life.’”</p><p>Joanna looked at him
in disbelief and said, “No it doesn’t say that.”</p><p>Rob smiled and
replied, “No, not exactly. But Jesus did die for you.” 
</p><p>“Is that all?”
asked Joanna, “Sounds too easy.  Too simple.”</p><p>“It is simple,”
Rob said. “Even a child can understand it.”</p><p>Joanna paused and
thought about it for a moment then asked, “How do I do it?”</p><p>“You pray,”
replied Rob.  Anticipating her question he said, “Prayer is nothing
more than a conversation with God. Do you want to believe?”</p><p>Joanna said in a
small voice, “Yes.  But I don’t know how.”</p><p>“Then just repeat
after me,” he said holding out his hands. “May I?” he asked and
hesitantly Joanna took his hands. “God, I know that I am a sinner.”</p><p>“God, I know that
I am a sinner,” she repeated.</p><p>“I believe that
Jesus was your son and was worthy to die for my sins and rose again
on the third day. Amen.”</p><p>“I believe that
Jesus was your son and was worthy to die for my sins and rose again
on the third day, Amen,” she said.  “Is that all?”</p><p>“Yep,” said Rob.
 “God knows your heart and your sincerity.”</p><p>“And if I sin
again?” she asked.</p><p>“Being saved
doesn’t mean you won’t sin. You WILL sin, but Jesus covered those
sins, too,” explained Rob. 
</p><p>“Then we are done
here,” said Joanna.  “Guard!” she yelled.  Then to Rob, “Be
ready.”</p><p>“For what?”
asked a slightly confused Rob.</p><p>
  <span>As
the guard opened the door, Joanna pu</span>
  <span>ll</span>
  <span>ed
her into the cell </span>
  <span>and jammed
a taser into her ribs.  The guard stiffened and then fell to the
ground unconscious.</span>
</p><p>Rob
watched in shock and stood there with his mouth open.</p><p>Joanna
looked at him and commanded, “Close your mouth and come with me if
you want to get out of here.”</p><p>Rob
hesitated unsure that this was the same person he had just spoken
with about Christ, “What about my family?” 
</p><p>“<span>We’ll
get them. Hurry!” urged Joanna.  </span><span>“Hurry!
We only have a few minutes to escape”, she hissed.</span></p><p>Stopping
for a moment, Joanna grabbed the unconscious guard’s security badge
and two-way radio. She then closed the door on the cell and the
guard.</p><p>Joanna
led them down the passage, past the security desk and through another
security door. Rob feared that they would run into another security
guard, but noticed that there was a 24 hour clock above the security
desk that read 03:58.  That would explain the lack of personnel, he
thought.</p><p>After
a couple of turns, they came to another security desk where a bored
looking guard stood up, walked around the desk and said, “May I
help you."</p><p>“Yes,”
said Joanna, “The director said to allow him to say goodbye to his
family before we ship him off to be re-educated.  He’s kind of a
softy like that.”</p><p>At
that the guard looked alarmed. That was not the director he knew. 
“I’ll have to ask someone about this,” he said as he started to
walk back around his desk and pick up his phone.  But before he
could, Joanna pressed the taser against his back and held it for a
few seconds.  Once again, the effect was cartoon-like as the guard
stiffened and then fell like a board, unconscious.</p><p>She
grabbed his badge and went to the closest door and swiped it through
the reader.  Opening the door, Rob saw Kat on the floor cradling Abby
and Emma as they slept.</p><p>“Rob!”
she cried with fear and joy, waking the girls.</p><p>“Daddy!”,
they both cried as they all ran to reunite.</p><p>“This
is Joanna. She is helping us get out of here,” explained Rob. 
</p><p>“What?
Why?” asked a confused Kat.</p><p>“No
time to explain. Just go!” said Rob in a voice that left no room
for hesitation.</p><p><span>At
that, they </span><span>all ran out the
open door with Joanna leading the way.  “This way to the garage!”
she hissed.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When
they reached another security door, she swiped her own badge to open
the door. No sooner than she had done it and started to push the door
open when the alarm began to shriek.  “Oh, </span>
  <span>shit</span>
  <span>!”
she said, and then “Sorry,” to Kat and the girls.  As they ran
into the </span>
  <span>garage, they saw the
overhead doors begin to lower.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joanna
ran to the first vehicle, a </span>
  <span>cargo
</span>
  <span>van and was relieved to see
the keys in the ignition. “</span>
  <span>Get
in and get down!”, she yelled. </span>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>hey
all jumped in and got down on the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Joanna
started the engine, put it into gear and pressed the accelerator to
the floor </span>
  <span>and</span>
  <span>
hit the partially closed garage doors and crashed through them.
</span>
  <span>Careening wildly, Rob heard
gunshots nearby and the metallic whack as the bullets tore through
the sides of the van but Joanna continued to accelerate </span>
  <span>through
the closed gate and down the road, guns firing and bullets hitting
the van.</span>
</p><p>Within
seconds they were far enough that the bullets stopped hitting the van
and a terrified Kat asked, “Is everyone okay?  Is anyone hit?”</p><p>The
girls and Rob responded with noes but Joanna said, “I’m hit”,
with a groan.</p><p>
  <span>Kat,
switching to nurse mode, </span>
  <span>squeezed
into the passenger seat and asked Joanna, “Where were you hit?”</span>
</p><p>“On
my left side, below my rib cage,” she groaned but kept driving.</p><p>“Pull
over and let me see,” demanded Kat.</p><p>“No!”,
barked Joanna, “We have to keep going! We’re not far from the
border.”</p><p>Joanna
turned sharply at an intersection, throwing the MacArthurs against
the side of the van.</p><p>“Hold
on!”, yelled Joanna as she sped the van up to an alarmingly
dangerous speed and crashed through some barrier. 
</p><p>“We’re
in the Free States,” she said painfully, “You’re safe.”</p><p>“Then
pull over and let me take care of you. Please!” begged Kat.</p><p>Joanna
nodded wordlessly and slowed to a stop. Kat and Rob jumped out and
ran around the van. Kat opened the door and caught Joanna as she
fell. Easing her to the ground, Kat felt her pulse and saw the blood
staining Joanna’s shirt and trousers. She quickly understood that
Joanna had only moments to live and said to her, “What’s your
name, honey?”</p><p>“Joanna,”
she replied weakly, “How bad is it?”</p><p>“You’ll
be fine once we get to a hospital, Joanna” said Kat.</p><p>“I
just met you and I can already tell you’re a terrible liar,”
laughed Joanna weakly. “Mr. MacArthur?”</p><p>“Call
me Rob,” he said gently.</p><p>“Will
you tell Alicia that I understand why she had to leave? Her number is
in my phone in the emergency contacts. They will come after her
because of me. Promise me you’ll help her escape to the Free
States.”</p><p>Rob
nodded solemnly, “Of course.”</p><p>Joanna
stopped looking at Rob and seemed to look through him instead, “I
can feel the love. It’s just like the dream….” 
</p><p>Kat
felt for a pulse and shook her head. “Who was she?” asked Kat.
“Someone from the network?”</p><p>“Quite
the opposite,” said Rob. “She was a PRA agent of some sort.”</p><p>By
this time sirens could be heard coming. Rob suddenly felt the urge to
run but realized that they were coming from the north and south.
South meant they were coming from the Free States and arrived in a
minute. 
</p><p>“Why
did she help us?”, asked Abby.</p><p>“Because
for the first time in her life she felt God’s love”, said Rob
quietly.</p><p>The
border guard who seemed to be in charge asked, “What’s going on
here? Who are you? What happened to her? Is she dead?” indicating
Joanna.</p><p>Kat
said, “We’re refugees from Massachusetts seeking asylum. Our
names are Robert, Kathryn, Abby, and Emma MacArthur. That woman was a
PRA agent.  She was killed helping us escape.”</p><p>“Robert
MacArthur, you say,” said the border guard his eyes narrowing.
“What was the last code word you received?”</p><p>Rob
tried to remember and looked to his wife in panic who only returned
the panicked stare.</p><p>“Jasmine”,
said Emma firmly. “It was jasmine.”</p><p>The
border guard looked at Emma for a minute and said, “Welcome to the
Free States, MacArthurs.  We’ve been alerted to be on the lookout
for you.”</p><p>Upon
hearing that, Rob reached into his pocket and pulled out the hidden
microchip and said to the guard, “This must be kept safe.”</p><p>“What
is it?” he said taking it and looking at it.</p><p>“It
may be the last copy of the dream of the Son.”</p><p>At
this the guard’s ears pricked up. “I’ve heard of it from
friends but never watched it. It’s impossible to find on the
Internet. How did you find a copy?”</p><p>“Because
it was my dream”, said Rob. He then explained that the PRA
government had been actively trying to erase all copies of it.</p><p>“Well,
if it’s that important to the PRA for it to put that much effort
into eliminating it, it must be bad for the PRA government. And
anything bad for them is good for the people,” he said. “I’ll
make sure this is kept safe.”</p><p>By
this time the PRA guards were shouting from across the border to
return the dangerous prisoners. The Free States border guard shouted
back at them, “Sorry, boys. These people have asked for asylum and
under our laws, they have a right to be heard.”</p><p>The
ambulance arrived and the EMTs checked everyone out. “Who was she?”
they asked.</p><p>“She
was the thief on the cross next to Jesus,” said Rob quietly. Then
louder, “She was a new sister in Christ and one of the bravest
people I have ever known. ‘Greater love has no man than he who
gives up his life for another.’”</p><p>To
the border guard in charge, Rob said, “I have to make a phone call
and after that, there is a woman in the PRA who will need the
assistance of the network very soon.”</p><p>“I’ll
relay the information to the network,” confirmed the guard.</p><p>Taking
Joanna’s phone, Rob searched the emergency contacts for an Alicia.
Finding her, he nervously pressed the call button. When Alicia
answered the phone she said worriedly, “Joanna? Are you okay?”</p><p>“No,
this isn’t Joanna,” he said. “I’m her brother in Christ. She
died a few minutes ago. She says that she understands why you had to
leave her. Listen to me, you’re in danger because she died helping
someone wanted by the PRA escape from a holding facility.”</p><p>“What?”
asked Alicia in a slightly hysterical voice.</p><p>“Her
last request was to make sure you would be safe. Please, someone will
be in contact with you very soon to help you escape.”</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p>1</p>
</div>
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